


LB 695 

M292 
Copy 2 




REMARKS 



SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



HON. HORACE MANN, 



SECRETARY 



Jttass(ut)U0ett0 Boarb of (Education. 






LB 695 
.M292 
Copy 2 



REMARKS 



SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



HON. HORACE MANN, 
SECRETARY 



4Ma5sac[)U0eit0 Boarir oi Plication. 



BOSTON: 

CHARLES C. LITTLE AND JAMES BROWN. 

1844. 



-e" 



VP 21 »* 07 



WM. A. HALL & CO., PRINTERS, 
No. 12 Water street. 



NOTICE 



The following remarks, suggested by the " Seventh An- 
nual Report" of the Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary of the 
Board of Education of Massachusetts, were prepared by a 
committee of the " Association of Masters of the Boston Pub- 
lic Schools," and were read before that body, by whom they 
are now published. It is hoped they may help in some 
degree to correct erroneous views and impressions, and thus 
tend to promote a healthy tone in public sentiment in relation 
to many things connected with the welfare of our common 
schools. The teacher, who has stood for many years, " him- 
self against a host" of five or six hundred children from all 
ranks and conditions of society, thinks he may once ask a' 
hearing before the public. We know that literary and moral 
amateurs seem very often to repudiate the notion, that " expe- 
rience is the best schoolmaster." We would not less eschew 
impatience with such and the great community, than with the 
children of our charge. We desire no assent to any thing 
which is not right and reasonable ; but being of one mind in 
regard to great cardinal principles, we shall once, at least, 
venture " abroad " in their defence. We think it unreason- 
able to expect that there would be no shades of difference in 
opinion on some points, nor could it be supposed that so 
many individuals would perfectly agree in taste about matter 
and manner of illustration. We have no object in view, but 



the public good, and for that all are willing to yield things of 
minor consideration. 

Many of the best days of our lives have been spent in the 
service of some of the schools of the commonwealth, and 
every thing we hold dear and sacred is most deeply connected 
with their present and future welfare. 

BARNUM FIELD, Franklin School. 
JOSEPH HALE, Johnson School. 
SAMUEL S. GREENE, New North School 
CORNELIUS WALKER, Wells School. 
WILLIAM D. SWAN, Mayhew School. 
WM. A. SHEPARD, Brimmer School. 
A. ANDREWS, Bowdoin School. 
JAMES ROBINSON, Bowdoin School. 
WM. J. ADAMS, Hancock School. 
PETER MACKINTOSH, Jr., Hancock School. 
SAMUEL BARRETT, Adams School. 
JOSIAH FAIRBANK, " " 
C. B. SHERMAN, Eliot School, 
LEVI CONANT, " 
AARON D. CAPEN, Mayheiv School. 
FREDERICK CRAFTS, Hawes School. 
JOHN ALEX. HARRIS, " 
ABNER FORBES, Smith School. 
ALBERT BOWKER, Lyman School. 
NATHAN MERRILL, Franklin School. 
REUBEN SWAN, Jr., Wells School. 
GEORGE ALLEN, Jr., Endicott School. 
LORING LATHROP, 
HENRY WILLIAMS, Jr., Winthrop School. 
SAMUEL L. GOULD, » J " 

THOMAS BAKER, Boylston School. 
CHARLES KIMBALL, " " 

JOSHUA BATES, Jr., Brimmer School. 
BENJ. DREW, Jr., New North School. 
J. A. STEARNS, Mather School. 
JONA. BATTLES, Jr., Mather School. 

Boston, August, 1844. 



REMARKS. 



The present age has been peculiarly marked by change 
and progress in the arts and physical sciences, and in every 
thing that has received the attention of the public mind. 
While the artisan and philosopher have been making their 
successful conquests over time and distance, many lives and 
much property have been sacrificed to new theories and in- 
experience. Attempts at reform in education and ethics have 
been carried, as to things relating to mind and morals, with 
almost as little caution and reverence, as to matter in the 
physical sciences. These hints are merely introductory to 
the following remarks upon the Seventh Annual Report of 
the Secretary of the Board of Education. This document, in 
all its connection with the interests of education, and in all 
its bearing upon the reputation and influence of numerous 
teachers, is one of high importance. This importance is 
greatly enhanced by the high official station, and the elevated 
moral and literary character of its author. A sense of duty 
alone, impels a public expression of distrust in its sentiments, 
and dissatisfaction with many of its details and representa- 
tions. 

The school system of Massachusetts has ever been the 
pride and glory of her children. Those Puritan fathers, who 
founded a university in ten years after they landed upon 
" New England's rude and rocky shore," also soon estab> 



6 

lished the common schools, to whose influence the present 
generation are greatly indebted for most of their preeminent 
civil, social, and religious blessings. Most of those men, who 
here sustained the burdens in the Indian, French, and Revo- 
lutionary wars, could boast of no higher Alma Mater than 
the rude room of some humble farm-house, in which, for a few 
weeks in each season, were gathered the "flaxen-headed 
urchins" of the scattered inhabitants. No apology is deemed 
necessary for the character of the teachers and the poor ac- 
commodations of the schools in the Bay State during the first 
two centuries ; the teachers have left behind them monu- 
ments which should excite feelings of gratitude, rather than 
produce those of dissatisfaction. 

From the necessity of the case, all the early institutions of 
the Pilgrims in the wilderness were of slow growth, and, con- 
sidering all the circumstances of a scattered population upon 
a rough and barren soil, and the foes with whom they had 
to contend, from civilized and savage nations, it is astonish- 
ing that so soon, " a little one became a thousand, and a small 
one a strong- nation." With all the rude fixtures and other 
inconveniences for school purposes, an enlightened public 
sentiment was early formed, which sustained the State legisla- 
ture in giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to the colleges 
and other seminaries of learning. After making allowance 
for the social evils of war and intemperance, the progress of 
education to the present time seems truly wonderful ; and 
the good cause was never more prosperous than at the time 
the Board of Education teas formed ; and the establishment 
of such a body, with little or no opposition, certainly indicated 
a Healthy tone in public sentiment. All the friends of the 
common schools, from the governor to the most humble 
citizen, felt a desire to see these institutions improved, and 
their blessings extended to every child in the commonwealth. 
The desire was for improvement, and not for revolution, in 
" that ancient and cherished institution, the common schools 
of Massachusetts." Little was it expected that, by means of 



experiments in new doctrines and theories, much reproach 
would be directly or indirectly thrown upon one class of in- 
dividuals, who had so long borne the burdens in the great 
work, for the aggrandizement of another class, who are less 
modest in their pretensions. But the new measures have 
become matters of history. A sacrilegious hand was laid 
upon every thing mental, literary, and moral, that did not 
conform to the new light of the day. Fulminations of 
sarcasm and ridicule, from the lecture-room and the press, in 
essays and speeches, were the forebodings of the new era in 
the history of common schools, and in the experience of 
teachers. After Washington had crossed the Delaware, in 
the darkest hour of the Revolution, congress gave him new 
power, in consideration of the great work before him ; but it 
seemed that before the teacher could be allowed to go on in 
his great work of warring against ignorance, idleness, and 
vice, his authority should be abridged, and all his acquired 
reputation and influence forfeited, as would be the goods of a 
contraband trade. All exaggerated accounts of cases in the 
school discipline of some teachers, and the supposed dis- 
qualifications of many others, seemed to be set forth to lessen 
the authority, influence, and usefulness of teachers, and give 
a new direction to public sentiment. 

From the time of the formation of the city government in 
the metropolis, after the party feeling that followed the war 
had subsided, a fresh impulse was given to the interest in the 
public schools; and the services of such men as Gould, Miles, 
Bailey, Leverett, and the Emersons, gave a new character to 
public instruction. The writings of those distinguished 
educators, Russell and Woodbridge, in the Journal and 
Annals of Education, and the formation of the American 
Institute of Instruction, tended greatly to excite a deeper 
interest in the cause of education, and demand new efforts in 
the business of teaching. It is believed by many, who have 
carefully watched all these matters, that the demands were 
not in vain, in many schools. Gov. Lincoln, the Hon. James 



8 

G. Carter, and the Rev. Mr. Gallaudet, were among the first 
projectors of teachers' seminaries ; though it was left for others 
to carry out their projects in the establishment of Normal 
schools. 

It was in the light of philosophy that Archimedes boast- 
ed to the king of Syracuse, if he would give him a place 
to stand upon, he would move the world; — and in the 
light of new theories others have attempted to do things 
equally as impracticable. In matters of education, how vain 
and worthless have been spasmodic efforts and hot-bed 
theories, in which the projectors have disregarded experience 
and observation ! Of such vagaries, in the first place, may be 
mentioned the infant school system, which, for a while, was 
the lion of its day. The fond parent, the philosopher, and 
the philanthropist, were equally captivated by the scintillations 
of infantile genius. The doting mother, and the credulous 
aunt, with rapturous delight told their friends of the rapid 
progress of the prattling child ; and the learned president of a 
New England college, w T hen he heard the little philosopher 
say that the hat, including the ribbon and buckle, was com- 
posed of parts of the three kingdoms of nature, the animal, 
vegetable, and mineral, remarked that he then saw by what 
means the world would be converted; and he seemed to 
think that in Geology, Botany, and Zoology, there would be 
no farther need of the services of Lyell, Gray, and Audubon ; 
but the object of his mental vision proved an ignis fatuus. 
The sister of a distinguished governor said, the whole affair 
of infant schools reminded her of those youthful days, when 
she planted beans in the garden, and soon pulled them up to 
see if the roots had grown. 

Next came Phrenology with all its organs and propensities, 
rejecting all fear, emulation, and punishments ; but in this 
country its great champions and advocates, who required 
brick without giving straw, proved to be unworthy disciples 
of Combe and Spurzheim. They had hardly told the fame 
and wonders of this new science before they all fell, as in one 



night, into a mesmeric sleep. There have sprang up, at dif- 
ferent times, a great variety of monitorial school systems, 
promising much, but effecting little ; and it is hoped, in view 
of the past, that experience, common sense, and honesty, will 
soon be increasing in demand. The monitorialist proposed 
to give, for any number of pupils on one day, as many 
teachers on the next. Next, the antipodes to the monitorialist, 
came the Normalist, who thinks there will not be good schools 
in Massachusetts, till all the teachers shall be trained, for a 
course of years, in some seminary for teachers. No one, who 
has ever taught and who knows any thing of the teacher's 
task, will lightly estimate opportunities for improvement of 
any kind. But it is believed that too much has been claimed 
for the Normal schools of Massachusetts in their infant state. 
Such seminaries may be made highly useful in ihe great 
work of enlightening the community, but the friends and 
advocates of such institutions never can exclusively claim the 
title of educators in free America ; others have found, and 
they ever will find, equal means of doing good, while igno- 
rance, vice, and idleness, prevail in the land. All the princi- 
pals of the Normal schools, though in a high rank of scholars, 
were comparatively inexperienced in public school-keeping, 
when they entered upon their arduous work. They might 
easily comprehend theories and systems of instruction, and 
they might explain them to their pupils ; but that " practice 
which makes perfect" can only be acquired by experience 
and observation amidst the responsible duties of teaching 
under a variety of circumstances, that can never be really un- 
derstood in a model school of thirty very young children. 
The average experience of Normal pupils in such a school, 
cannot be more than two weeks, which must be regarded as 
insignificant, by any one who knows much about the variety 
of circumstances in which teachers are often placed in the 
discharge of their duties. 

It is believed no little injustice has been done to the general 
character of teachers, by those who have been over-anxious 



10 

for the reputation and success of the Normal schools. What 
would be thought of a general who, with a most powerful 
enemy before him, should publicly announce that his soldiers 
were weak and inefficient, though they had shown themselves 
powerful and effective, on great emergencies, in driving the 
barbarians from the wilderness ? Did not Mr. Mann act in 
such a manner, when, in his early reports, he said much of " in- 
competent teachers," — " ignorance of teachers," — "depressed 
state of common schools;" — and declared "that the schools 
were under a sleepy supervision," — " and that the teachers of 
the schools," — "in the absence of all opportunities to qualify 
themselves," — "were" — "deeply and widely deficient in 
the two indispensable prerequisites for their office; namely, a 
knowledge of the human mind as the subject of improvement, 
and a knowledge of the means best adapted wisely to unfold 
and direct its growing faculties ; " and, consequently, " that the 
common school system of Massachusetts had fallen into a state 
of general unsoundness and debility ? " 

There were persons, throughout the length and breadth 
of the commonwealth, ready to echo these sentiments; and 
they did so to the great injury of the general influence of 
teachers. The " irksome task of public instruction " was, of 
course, made doubly irksome by the loss of confidence in the 
teacher. It has been well remarked — " The appeal ad invidi- 
am is never powerless. There are always men enough under 
any government to echo the notes of complaint ; " and "who- 
ever would persuade men [or children] that they are not as 
well governed [or taught] as they might be, shall never want 
willing hearers." In many places, the parents neither re- 
spected, nor did the children reverence, in the least degree, the 
appointed guardians and instructers of youth, for it had been 
affirmed, upon the highest authority, that all was rotten in 
Denmark. Every teacher, in the towns, felt that his burdens 
were increased by the demands of the age for greater profi- 
ciency among his pupils ; still, his influence and usefulness 
were much retarded and greatly abridged ; as all had been 



11 

told that he was " deeply and widely deficient in the two 
indispensable prerequisites for his office." A spirit of revolu- 
tion was, consequently, abroad among the people, in relation 
to the schools which, " for almost two hundred years, had 
been honored and eulogized by the greatest and best men, 
who, within all that period, had enlightened and blessed the 
commonwealth." It seemed that some new law was about 
to throw these " greatest and best men " into the same relation 
to the truth, that the discovery of the Copernican system 
threw those who had believed in that of Ptolemy. A spirit 
of distrust in teachers was created through the State, before 
the establishment of the first Normal school. How far the 
public mind was thus moved in view of such an object, and 
how far the end justified the means, others must judge. 

None but teachers of observation and experience could 
fully understand the consequences of creating such a " gen- 
eral" distrust in the teachers, who were pronounced "incom- 
petent," and in the system, which was said to be " under a 
sleepy supervision." What would be the effect upon the 
usefulness of the medical profession, if the public were in- 
formed, in view of some new light of the day, by similar high 
authority, that the physicians of the country were " incompe- 
tent " to their duties, and '" deeply and widely deficient in 
the two indispensable prerequisites of their calling? " It was 
said, " without fault of their own," the teachers had been in 
the absence of all opportunities to qualify themselves, which 
could only be properly enjoyed at the Normal schools. 
Would it be right and just to say of the ministry of two large 
and influential denominations of Christians, because they had 
no theological seminaries, and only one college in New 
England, that " in the absence of all opportunities to qualify 
themselves," they were "deeply and widely deficient" in some 
of the " prerequisites of their office ? " Upon the same prin- 
ciple, all religious denominations in this country had an 
"incompetent" ministry for nearly«two hundred years. By 
such reasoning, the Masons and Websters, who studied the 



12 

laws and constitution of their country in some village in 
New Hampshire, must be " incompetent " in the legal pro- 
fession when compared with the students of Cambridge and 
Litchfield, who have heard, perhaps, many principles ex- 
plained in mock trials ; and further, without irreverence, Paul, 
who was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, was less compe- 
tent " to reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment 
to come," than is the student from a New England divinity 
school. 

There has ever been something unique in the individual 
character of the inhabitants of New England ; and one who 
has written much upon the subject of education, well des- 
cribed this peculiarity when he said : "A sturdy lad from 
New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the pro- 
fessions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, 
preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to congress, buys a town- 
ship, and so forth, in successive years, and always, like a cat, 
falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of your city dolls. He 
walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not study- 
ing a profession, for he does not postpone his life, but lives 
already." ' Self-reliance in the discharge of duty, and tact in 
emergency, are worth more than all the untried theories in the 
world ; and it may be said, without any disparagement to 
literary and professional advantages, that the individual who 
depends most upon his own judgment and exertions under 
every variety of circumstances, generally excels in his under- 
takings. 

It was justly said by some one, that the man who under- 
took to teach others before he had informed himself, deserved 
" literary crucifixion." It needs no argument to prove that a 
person cannot well teach what he does not fully understand 
himself; but with an " aptness to teach," and requisite literary 
qualifications, one will succeed in proportion to his good 
judgment, benevolence, energy, and fidelity. Without such 
qualifications, no Normal ^school can make a good teacher ; 
and with them, experience alone can give one a high rank 



13 

for usefulness and success. But it may be said, that new 
light in morals and metaphysics, like the discovery of the law 
of gravitation in philosophy, was destined to produce a new 
era in the cause of learning ; and the Normal school was to 
be the Propaganda from which this new light was to be 
irradiated for the advancement of the moral and intellectual 
welfare of coming generations. It is thought no exaggeration 
to say such was the expectation of some. As facts will be 
called for, the views of a few individuals most engaged in 
advancing and sustaining the Normal schools must be given. 
The quotations, though few and short, will be acknowledged 
to be of the highest authority on this subject. They are as 
follow : Dr. Howe, of the Asylum for the Blind, said of his 
own school : " We need none of the stimuli which by some are 
supposed necessary. We have no corporal punishments, no 
prizes, no taking precedence in classes, no degradations. Em- 
ulation there is and will be ; nature provides for this in the self- 
esteem of each individual." The president of the American 
Institute of Instruction said : " There is no other so ready a 
way, I repeat it, to produce falsehood in a child as to doubt 
his word. And it must be so. A doubter is a liar. One 
who was himself perfectly true could never suspect. It is true, 
that there is a distrust produced by the experience of other 
men's falsehoods. But this belongs to the world. It cannot 
be felt by a teacher towards a child." Mr. Pierce, the first 
principal of the Normal school at Lexington, said: "And here 
I would state that my theory goes to the entire exclusion of 
the premium and emulation system, and of corporal punish- 
ment." It is hard to conceive of any thing more radical and 
less conservative, than such views, when considered in con- 
nection with the administration of all the institutions of New 
England, during the last two centuries. Nothing can be 
more at war with approved principles. The soundness of 
these principles must be discussed more at large in another 
place. Is it uncharitable to suppose that Dr. Howe and the 
President of the Institute, with their peculiar views, would 



14 

look with more than parental fondness and indulgence upon 
the results of Mr. Pierce's experiment at the Lexington Nor- 
mal school? The public ought not to complain of this fond- 
ness and indulgence, unless they were shown at the unjust 
expense of those who had long and faithfully borne the heat 
and burdens of the day, and who still had a great work to 
perform. Invidious comparisons generally have but one 
object and tendency. 

In a short time after the establishment of the Normal 
school at Lexington, it was visited by Dr. Howe, of the 
Asylum for the Blind, of whom Mr. Mann afterwards said, 
it is owing " to his judgment, his knowledge, and the energy 
of his benevolent impulses," " that the institution over which 
he presides has enjoyed such an unexampled degree of pros- 
perity, as to be accounted throughout the civilized world the 
first of its kind." This praise from Mr. Mann seemed due to 
Dr. Howe, who had before said, in a letter to a friend, pub- 
lished in the Common School Journal: "It has been in my 
power to examine many schools in this country, and in 
various parts of the world, but I am free to declare that, in my 
opinion, the best school I ever saw in this or any other coun- 
try is the Normal school at Lexington." " I prefer it, because 
the system is based upon the principles that the young mind 
hungers and thirsts for knowledge, as the body does for food ; 
because it makes the pupils not merely recipients of knowl- 
edge, but calls all their faculties into operation to attain it 
themselves ; and, finally, because, relying upon the higher 
and nobler parts of the pupil's nature, it rejects all addresses 
to bodily fears, and all appeals to selfish feelings." " To me, 
sir, it was delightful to see that they were becoming acquaint- 
ed with the nature of the children's minds, before they under- 
took to manage them ; and that they would not, like other 
teachers, have to learn at the children's expense." " Perhaps, 
sir, you, like myself, may have suffered, in boyhood, under 
some usher, who was learning his trade by experimenting 
upon you, as the barber's apprentice learns to shave upon the 



15 

chins of his master's less-favored customers." The president 
of the Institute also visited the school, with Dr. Howe, and 
remarked : " Yet I am confident, from what I saw of their 
modes of teaching, that those individuals will show the effects 
of those few weeks of special instruction, all the remainder 
of their lives. They can never teach in the blind and lifeless 
way in which thousands of elementary schools are taught." 
No remarks could have harmonized better with the secretary's 
views if they had been made " to order," after what he had 
said about the "general unsoundness and debility" of the 
" Common School System of Massachusetts," and about the 
teachers being " deeply and widely deficient in the two indis- 
pensable prerequisites for their office." There is not the least 
desire to detract from the literary merits of the Normal 
schools, nor from the high character and reputation of any of 
these gentlemen ; still, it is confidently believed, that the latter 
are laboring under several mistakes of a practical and theo- 
retical nature. These Normal pupils could not have made 
such proficiency as to constitute the "best school" "in this or 
any other country," " in a few weeks," without much previous 
discipline and instruction. In theorizing in matters of edu- 
cation, men always select pupils of the best minds and 
morals, and they seem to forget that the " irksome task of 
public instruction " is among the great mass of the popula- 
tion. A common school is often a world in miniature. 
Within the same walls there are often the children of the rich 
and the poor, the idle and industrious, the moral and im- 
moral. The diversity of the inhabitants of the burial places 
near Constantinople, "whom death has continued to mow 
down for near four centuries, in the vast capital of Islamism," 
as described in Anastasius, is not greater than what some- 
times exists among the parents of the children in one of the 
cities or large towns. The United States has long been an 
asylum for the whole human family, and consequently, there 
are sometimes collected in the same school, children who 
have come from all parts of the world, and who have the 



16 

greatest diversity of character to be assimilated, before peace 
and harmony can well reign among the " sovereign " people. 

Had that " distinguished writer and educator," the president 
of the American Institute, ever known by experience, any thing 
of the trials of many teachers, he would not have made such 
withering comparisons between theory under the most favora- 
ble circumstances at the Normal school, which he had seen, 
and " the blind and lifeless way," in practice, " of thousands 
of elementary schools," which he had not seen. The truth of 
the assertion, that "a doubter" of a child's word "is a liar," 
can only be admitted by the teacher out of " the world," if 
any dependence can be put upon the evidence of some of the 
most prominent of the " five senses," which Mr. Mann says, 
" abont twenty years ago, the teachers in Prussia made the 
important discovery that children have." Besides, it is 
thought, the sentiment that distrust "cannot be felt by a 
teacher towards a child," is inconsistent with the later views 
of the same individual, as expressed in that valuable work, 
" The School and Schoolmaster," where he says, " children 
are made liars by the examples set them from their earliest 
days. They are coaxed by falsehood, by what are called 
white lies, to get up and to go to bed: to go to play and-to 
give up their playthings ; to give up food and take medicine. 
They are even coaxed by falsehood into being good ! " 

Mr. Pierce, of the Normal school, has somewhere said : 
" Teachers create difficulties themselves, and then ask what 
they shall do with them without the rod. They do not know 
the depths of the human heart." Without reference to the 
theological point which is here brought into view, or the 
phrenological principle of self-esteem, or the non-resistance 
doctrine of no corporal punishment, — the teacher must take 
the world as he finds it. His labors have certainly been in- 
creased, and his usefulness and influence have been greatly 
diminished, by the new notions of modern times. Notwith- 
standing, it was found, that " a large majority of the young 
ladies " of the Lexington Normal school, under Mr. Pierce, 



17 

" were of opinion, that it [the rod] should not be resorted to 
in any case," experience, philanthropy, and wisdom, still dic- 
tate the necessity of its use, or of the right to use it. It will 
be perceived, from the sentiments of Mr. Pierce and some of 
the friends of the Normal schools and the results of instruc- 
tion, that views entirely radical are characteristic of the insti- 
tution. The State seal gives these new doctrines an impor- 
tance and consideration with some persons, which otherwise 
they might not possess. The public mind has been so far 
poisoned, that great distrust is felt in all teachers of the old 
school. Already, in the metropolis, have members of the 
School Committee been importuned to " come out " against 
corporal punishment, and to give their influence for " non- 
resistance," and " no government," which are synonymes of 
" anti-corporal punishment." One gentleman inquired, if it 
was believed that the city schools could be well managed 
upon the " come out " plan ; and the reply was, that they 
probably could not be, by the present teachers ; but, it was 
thought they could be by others — [Normalites ! !!] Mr. 
Mann's account of the Prussian schools, was cited in confir- 
mation of such an opinion. By visionary notions of untried 
theories, and hearsay and false testimony respecting the gen- 
eral conservative practices of two hundred years, and by an 
esprit du corps characteristic of all violent reforms, much 
mischief has been effected, and much good prevented. Per- 
sonalities, and impeachment of motives, are here entirely dis- 
claimed ; still it must be admitted that the evil is no less when 
the torch is applied by the deluded " monomaniac," than 
when the fire is the work of the midnight incendiary. It is 
believed that many of the new experiments have proved 
failures, as shown by impartial testimony ; and that too 
much has been claimed in official reports for the compara- 
tive success of the Normal schools. There have been cases 
of failure among those sent out from these schools. A clerical 
gentleman of the highest respectability, from the centre of 
the commonwealth, says : " A comparison between the stu- 



18 

dents from Leicester Academy, and those from the Normal 
school at Barre, in the examination of qualifications, or upon 
trial, would be much in favor of the former institution ; and 
many from Barre have failed in examination, and some 
upon trial." Such accounts are coming from various parts 
of the State. An extract from the report of the School 
Committee of the ancient town of Yarmouth, shows the 
statements on this subject are not made without good au- 
thority. That report says : " In relation to the selection of 
efficient teachers, the committee are at a loss to know what 
course to recommend. They found those who came highly 
recommended from our first seminaries of learning, as defi- 
cient in a knowledge of elementary principles, as those whose 
advantages of education have been limited to the public 
schools, and were compelled to withhold their approbation 
from an applicant who had been educated at one of the Nor- 
mal schools ; and who came with testimonials of competence 
from the teacher of that institution. To the Normal schools, 
the committee had been accustomed to look with confidence, 
as the source from whence we were soon to be supplied with 
teachers, who had not only been prepared in the subjects which 
they were to teach ; but had also been instructed in the best 
method of imparting that knowledge to others. But, if such 
candidates are permitted to leave the institution with the sanc- 
tion of its officers, there is reason to apprehend, that their in- 
fluence will be productive of more evil than good, by lulling 
to rest the vigilance of committees; and, unless the Board of 
Education are more careful to select officers who are more 
thorough in their course of instruction, and more conscien- 
tious in their recommendations, the whole project might as 
well be given up, and the State preserved from what is other- 
wise a useless expense." 

Persons sometimes place themselves in such a position, that 
they cannot well judge impartially ; and Mr. Mann has said, 
" men are generally very willing to modify, or change their 
opinions and views, while they exist in thought merely, but, 



19 

when once formally expressed, the language chosen often 
becomes the mould of the opinion. The opinion fills the 
mould, but cannot break it and assume a new form." May- 
it not be in accordance with such a principle, that Dr. Howe, 
before the American Institute, in 1841, defended the Normal 
schools in Massachusetts, with more than gladiatorial ardor ; 
he having before spoken of the school at Lexington in this 
manner : it is " the best school I ever saw, in this or any other 
country." And does Mr. Mann wish to be made an excep- 
tion to his own rule ; when, in his seventh annual report, on 
his return from Europe, he says : " I have seen no Institution 
for the blind, equal to that under the care of Dr. Howe, at South 
Boston ; " which Mr. Mann had before pronounced " the first 
of its kind " " throughout the civilized world." The Hon. Sec- 
retary cannot complain, if those, of whom he expressed such 
unfavorable opinions before he went " to some new quarter 
of the horizon " for " a brighter beam of light," avail them- 
selves in self-defence of his own rules to preserve their influ- 
ence ; and to avert what otherwise might cause them to suffer, 
from his sarcastic lash, in his unjust comparisons between 
them and teachers in some of the countries of Europe. 

The Hon. Secretary often alludes to his acquaintance with 
men, and he seems to understand their principles of action ; 
and he well knows that individuals are slow to change their 
opinions respecting a subject, upon which they stand fully 
committed. In legislative bodies, and among other associa- 
tions of public men, the character of reports, upon interesting 
subjects, may be generally anticipated with a great degree 
of certainty, by those who understand the views, or party bias 
of the individual to whom they are referred. Though Mr. 
Mann may eschew party feeling, and previous opinions in 
the examination of all subjects, as he does a spirit of emula- 
tion among the young ; still, it is thought, that he may pos- 
sess some of the infirmities of other men ; and that even the 
emulous youth at school, might innocently remind him of the 
fable of the crab and his son. The secretary has often repu- 



20 

diated the general principle of emulation, and in his seventh 
annual report, he is clearly understood, in some places, to ex- 
press strong views of its odious tendency, and to appeal 
to its influence in others. In speaking of the Prussian and 
Saxon schools, he says, "emulation had been found an ad- 
verse, and not favoring influence," and " the best authori- 
ties throughout the country were discountenancing, rather 
than encouraging it ; " and, in connection with the same sub- 
ject, he inquires, " Ought we then to cultivate this passion, 
[love of approbation,] already of inordinate growth, by the 
use of emulation in our schools ? " Had the secretary for- 
gotten that in a former part of his document, " the town of 
Brighton" stood "at the head of all the towns in the Com- 
monwealth, in regard to the liberality of its appropriations for 
the support of schools," and that " the town of Dana," which 
stood " at the foot of the list," had " resigned its place at the 
bottom of the catalogue, to the town of Pawtucket." Is not 
here a strong appeal to the principle of emulation in putting 
" head " in such antithesis with " foot " and " bottom," and 
in placing such emphasis on " Brighton," at the expense of 
poor " Dana" and " Pawtucket " ? 

It is not known that Mr. Mann had ever given much atten- 
tion to the common school system, or that he had been in 
any way very active, in the great cause of common schools, 
before his appointment as Secretary of the Board. With little 
practical knowledge, and without any fixed notions founded 
upon experience and observation, it is not strange, perhaps, 
that he did injustice to the school system, which had long 
been justly regarded as the glory of the commonwealth. 
Had Mr. Mann ever extended a warm sympathy to the 
public teachers ; or had he ever taken an interest with those 
who formed, and, for a long time, sustained the American 
Institute of Instruction ; he might have put a higher estimate 
upon institutions at home, and been less ready fully to com- 
mit himself to the theory of those abroad, before seeing them. 
In the secretary's second annual report, after his great dis- 



21 

paragement of committees, teachers, and the condition of the 
school system of Massachusetts, he says : " To expect that 
a system, animated only by a feeble principle of life, and that 
life in irregular action, could be restored at once to health and 
vigor, would be a sure preparation for disappointment. It is 
now twenty years, since the absolute government of Prussia, 
under the impulse of self-preservation, entered upon the work 
of entirely remodelling their common schools, so as to give 
them a comprehensiveness and an efficacy, which would em- 
brace and educate every child in the kingdom. In this un- 
dertaking, high intelligence has been aided, at every step, by 
unlimited power ; and yet the work is but just completed." 
Since Mr. Mann had previously, in a most emphatic manner, 
condemned so many things in Massachusetts ; and, since his 
favorite beau ideal, as he thinks, characterized at least the 
Prussian system, the following extracts from his " seventh 
annual report," upon his return from Europe, though severe 
in the extreme, contain such views as might have been 
expected. Whether his views are just or unjust, the public 
must judge after a proper examination of the case. The 
secretary's report says : 

" For the six years during which I have been honored with an 
appointment to the office of Secretary of the Board of Educa- 
tion, I have spared neither labor nor expense in fulfilling not only 
that provision of the law which requires that ' the secretary shall col- 
lect information,' but also that injunction, not less important, that he 
shall 'diffuse as widely as possible, throughout every part of the 
commonwealth, information of the most approved and successful 
methods of arranging the studies and conducting the education of the 
young.' For this purpose I have visited schools in most of the free 
States and in several of the slave States of the Union ; have made 
myself acquainted with the different laws relative to public instruc- 
tion which have been enacted by the different legislatures of our 
country, have attended great numbers of educational meetings, and, as 
far as possible, have read whatever has been written, whether at home 
or abroad, by persons qualified to instruct mankind on this [?] mo- 
mentous subject. Still, I have been oppressed with a painful con- 
sciousness of my inability to expound the merits of this [?] great 
theme, in all their magnitude and variety, and have turned my eyes 
again and again to some new quarter of the horizon, in the hope 
that they would be greeted by a brighter [?] beam of light. Under 



22 

these circumstances, it was natural that the celebrity of institutions in 
foreign countries should attract my attention, and that I should feel 
an intense desire of knowing whether, in any respect, those [?] insti- 
tutions were superior to our own ; and, if any thing were found in 
them worthy of adoption, of transferring it for our improvement. 

" Accordingly, early last spring, I applied to the Board for per- 
mission to visit Europe, at my own expense, during the then ensuing 
season, that I might make myself personally acquainted with the 
nature and workings of their [?] systems of public instruction, — 
especially in those countries which had long enjoyed the reputation 
of standing at the head of the cause." [?] — pp. 18 and 19. 

" Among the nations of Europe, Prussia has long enjoyed the 
most distinguished reputation for the excellence of its schools. In 
reviews, in speeches, in tracts, and even in graver works devoted to 
the cause of education, its schools have been exhibited as models 
for the imitation of the rest of Christendom." — p. 21. 

" Perhaps I saw as fair a proportion of the Prussian and Saxon 
schools, as one would see of the schools in Massachusetts, who 
should visit those of Boston, Newburyport, Lexington, New Bedford, 
Worcester, Northampton and Springfield." — p. 70. 

" Actual observation alone can give any thing approaching to the 
true idea. I do not exaggerate when I say that the most active and 
lively schools I have ever seen in the United States, must be regarded 
almost as dormitories, if compared with the fervid life of the Scotch 
schools ; and, by the side of theirs, our pupils would seem to be hyber- 
nating animals just emerging from their torpid state, and as yet but 
half conscious of the possession of life and faculties. It is certainly 
within bounds to say, that there were six times as many questions 
put and answers given, in the same space of time, as I ever heard 
put and given in any school in our own country." — p. 62. 

" Nor is this all. The teacher does not stand immovably fixed to 
one spot, (I never saw a teacher in Scotland sitting in a school-room,) 
nor are the bodies of the pupils mere blocks, resting motionless in 
their seats, or lolling from side to side as though life were deserting 
them." — p. 64. 

" While attending to the recitation of one, his mind is constantly 
called off, to attend to the studies and conduct of all the others. 
For this, very few teachers amongst us, have the requisite capacity ; 
and hence the idleness and the disorder that reign in so many of 
our schools, — excepting in cases where the debasing motive of fear 
puts the children in irons." — p. 84. 

" A teacher who cannot answer all the questions and solve all the 
doubts of a scholar as they arise, must assume an awful and myste- 



23 

rious air, and must expound in oracles, which themselves need more 
explanation than the original difficulty." — p. 128. 

" Do we not need a new spirit in our community, and especially 
in our schools, which shall display only objects of virtuous ambition 
before the eyes of our emulous youth; and teach them that no height 
of official station, nor splendor of professional renown, can equal in 
the eye of heaven, and of all good men, the true glory of a life 
consecrated to the welfare of mankind ? " — p. 83. 

" I speak of the teachers whom I saw, and with whom I had more 
or less of personal intercourse ; and, after some opportunity for the 
observation of public assemblies or bodies of men — I do not hesitate 
to say, that if those teachers were brought together, in one body, I 
believe they would form as dignified, intelligent, benevolent-looking 
a company of men as could be collected from the same amount of 
population in any country." — p. 127. 

These quotations are made to give the reader a clear, 
general view of the object of the secretary's visit abroad, 
and the result of his comparisons. The secretary having 
designated "Boston" as one of the places in Massachusetts, 
in comparison with those he visited in Prussia, the inquiry is 
at once made, what does Mr. Mann know of the present 
state of the public " Grammar and Writing Schools" of 
Boston? "With one voice, the answer is, he knows compara- 
tively nothing. It is not known to any of the masters that the 
secretary has improved any opportunity, within five years, of 
knowing any thing of the views of the Boston teachers, or 
any thing of their plans, or the results of their instruction. 
It will be seen, that Mr. Mann has alluded to " the law 
which requires" that "the secretary shall collect information " 
and " diffuse as widely as possible throughout every part of 
the commonwealth, information of the most approved and 
successful methods of arranging the studies and conducting 
the education of the young." Though the secretary speaks 
in some of his annual reports of holding meetings in all the 
fourteen counties, still the teachers in Boston never heard of 
more than one such meeting in Suffolk, and that was held 
six or seven years ago ; and it is difficult for them to under- 
stand how Mr. Mann could have " collected " or " diffused " 



24 

any information in Suffolk, unless it was done by some mes- 
meric process of which they know nothing. 

It may not be improper nor immodest to say that the Boston 
teachers, not receiving the sympathy and diffusive light which 
have been so profusely extended to other parts of the State, 
have done what they could among themselves to encourage 
each other, and to " collect and diffuse " such information as 
would best tend to advance the welfare of the schools com- 
mitted to their charge. Many of these teachers have enjoyed 
all the literary advantages of the college, or the university; 
others have had opportunities, perhaps not less valuable ; 
and all have had much experience. They have not forgotten 
the apostolic injunction, and have frequently " assembled 
themselves together;" and though it may not be said that 
" they would form as dignified, intelligent, benevolent-looking 
a company of men as could be collected," still they have 
tried faithfully to discharge their duty, and have exerted them- 
selves to advance the great cause of public instruction. 
Within the two years previous to the time that Mr. Mann 
made his late report, there have been delivered, by the mem- 
bers, before the Association of Public Teachers of Boston, 
lectures on the following subjects : " On Different Systems of 
English Grammar ; " " Mechanical Teaching ; " " Elemen- 
tary Principles of Reading ; " " Analysis of the Human 
Voice ; " " Tones, Inflections, and Sentimental Expressions 
of correct Reading ; " " Thorough Instruction ; " " The Influ- 
ence of Teaching upon the Teacher's Mind;" "Legal and 
moral Obligations of the Teacher ; " "A Day in the Schools of 
Lowell ; " " Literary and moral Qualifications of Teachers ; " 
"The Teacher's Task;" "The comparative Rank and Use- 
fulness of Teachers; " " The Principles of Analysis in teaching 
English Grammar ; " " School Discipline ; " " Duties and Obli- 
gations of Parents to Pupils and Teachers;" " The Use of 
Moral Suasion in Discipline ; " " The Routine of School Ex- 
ercises ; " " Half a Day in School." Besides these lectures, 



25 

several reports have been made, and many discussions have 
been held on subjects connected with the business of teaching. 

The Prussian school system is thought to be a proper 
" model for the imitation of the rest of Christendom," and the 
secretary complains that the " traveller, Laing, has devoted 
several chapters " to its " disparagement," as he does not 
believe that Laing " had ever visited the schools " he " pre- 
sumed to condemn." It is known by the Boston teachers that 
the Hon. Secretary has not, for several years, visited their 
schools, and that he knows nothing, by observation, to warrant 
his disparagement of them, in common with others, at the 
present time. Should Mr. Mann say that a few visits to the 
school-houses, soon after his original appointment as secre- 
tary, and, perhaps, an occasional one since, were sufficient 
upon which to predicate his remarks, every experienced 
teacher will dissent from all decisions founded on such testi- 
mony. It may be seen that the secretary makes hasty state- 
ments and comparisons upon matters abroad and at home. 
His most partial friends must admit the correctness of this 
assertion. The North American Review says of his " seventh 
report:" " It has some defects of arrangement, and some faults 
of style; and the shortness of the time during which Mr. 
Mann was abroad, has occasioned some mistakes. Several 
assertions are too unqualified." 

An able correspondent of the Mercantile Journal says, that 
he is " apprehensive " that Mr. Mann's " remarks on the in- 
struction of the deaf and dumb in Holland, Prussia, and 
Saxony, are too sweeping, and may lead to incorrect impres- 
sions." This writer, who seems a perfect master of his sub- 
ject, thinks "it would not be at all surprising if even a 
gentleman of Mr. Mann's intelligence, laboring under the 
disadvantages of having no practical acquaintance with deaf 
mute instruction, and, perhaps, not even acquainted with the 
history and extensive literature of the science, should form 
hasty and erroneous conclusions on a subject for the most 
part, if not altogether, new to him." Charity for the secre- 
4 



26 

tary's want of " practical acquaintance " is often needed with 
its ample mantle, amid the fog and mystification which he 
seems to throw over matters of a practical nature connected 
with the great subject of public instruction. 

The secretary has a chapter upon music in the Prussian 
schools; still it is not known to the teachers of music in 
the Boston schools, that Mr. Mann was ever present to hear 
the singing exercises in a half-hour's lesson in these schools. 
He says, " in Germany, where the blind, like all other classes 
of society, are taught music very thoroughly, I saw a common 
mode of performance on the organ which is very unusual in 
America. The organs were constructed with a set of keys for 
the feet ; so that the feet could always play an accompaniment 
to the hands." There are more than fifty such organs in 
churches within sight of the State-house, in Boston, though 
Mr. Mann says they are "unusual in America." 

Mr. Mann's account makes the teachers and pupils of the 
schools in Prussia and Scotland, " giants," and those of 
Massachusetts, "pigmies" in comparison. Our schools, he 
says, "must be regarded almost as dormitories," and "our 
pupils would seem to be hybernating animals," by the side 
of those of Scotland. With great apparent surprise, the 
secretary does " not hesitate to say," that " those teachers 
whom he saw in Prussia were as dignified, intelligent, be- 
nevolent-looking a company of men as could be collected 
from the same amount of population in any country." The 
Prussian and Scotch teachers seem to be all Newtons, Me- 
lancthons, Oberlins, and Mozarts, when compared with the 
David Gamuts, Dominie Sampsons, Ichabod Cranes, and old 
Squeerses, that the secretary had seen in Massachusetts. 

It must not be denied that among the great amount of 
matter in the secretary's report, there are many interesting 
statements and disinterested remarks ; but in many of his 
reflections upon some, of the institutions and citizens of the 
country, it is thought that he is not less severe than Madam 
Trollope herself. The secretary often admits the excellence of 



27 

the Massachusetts free schools, but he thinks they were " dor- 
mitories " when he first assailed their " sleepy supervision," 
and the only legitimate inference to be drawn is, that without 
his agency, all, ere this time, would have been in a state of 
dilapidation and decay. But such insinuations should not 
be made without the proof of their correctness, which must be 
given. Mr. Mann seems to have formed a most unfavorable 
opinion of the state of education in many parts of England. 
In his Common School Journal, he says : " Let any one read 
the reports of the English Factory Commissioners and 
Factory Inspectors, and he will say that the Fejee Islanders, 
the Caribs, or the most ferocious tribes of cannibals that 
prowl in the interior of Africa, thousands of miles from the 
confines of civilization, ought to send missionaries to Eng- 
land, to raise, if possible, the English manufacturer to their 
own level of humanity." In his reference to the present 
deplorable state of things in England, in " consequence of 
having no national system " of education, he says : " These 
facts are full of admonition to us, for this is the state of 
things towards which, eight years ago, [?] we were rapidly 
tending." The inference is obvious, that the secretary thinks 
he has saved Massachusetts from sinking to that deplorable 
depth, so far below the "level of humanity" enjoyed by the 
Carib, the Fejee, and the cannibal. Such intimations have 
before been given, and the secretary, in his fifth annual 
report, seems to date the advance of teachers' wages, the in- 
crease of the length of schools, and the improved discipline, 
from 1837, when he made his " first annual report." But it 
is thought there were other causes that tended greatly to pro- 
duce such results, which he did not duly consider and ac- 
knowledge. The increase of population within the same 
territorial limits, of course, would naturally increase the 
number of annual schools, and, consequently, the average 
length of the whole number of schools ; and the growing 
prosperity, between the year 1837 and the year 1S42, would 
also naturally augment the amount paid to teachers. The 



28 

temperance reform has also had an undoubted influence in 
promoting the prosperity of the common schools. In im- 
proving school discipline, in promoting punctuality, and in 
effecting the needed supply of clothing and books for children, 
the labors of the temperance philanthropists have been para- 
mount in the last seven years. Many of the active theorists 
in the cause of education have been so visionary and im- 
practicable that they have done comparatively little good, and, 
in some respects, they have done not a little harm. It is 
considered " censurable " that " the friends of the Secretary of 
the Board of Education are endeavoring to convey the im- 
pression that upon his exertions, mainly, depends the existence 
and prosperity of our common schools. This is great injus- 
tice to the five or six generations of patriots who liave de- 
scended to their graves, and to whom we are really indebted 
for this great boon." It is justly claimed, and confidently 
believed, that "we always have had, and we always shall 
have, good common schools in Massachusetts, whether we 
have a Board of Education or no." 

It was not the design of these remarks to make any refer- 
ence to the Board of Education, but their secretary having, 
through his report, given the good citizens of Boston such 
reasons to be dissatisfied 'with their schools, a defence seems 
imperiously demanded from some source, and were the 
teachers to remain silent, it might well be supposed they have 
neither the qualifications of teachers, nor the feelings of men, 
and it seems that the secretary must have supposed them 
destitute of both, or he would not have so trifled with public 
credulity. It cannot be denied, and probably will not be, 
that it was intended to include Boston among the places, 
" where the debasing motive of fear puts the children in 
irons ; " and where the schools " must be regarded almost as 
dormitories; " the pupils as " hybernating animals " — " mere 
blocks, resting motionless in their seats, or lolling from side 
to side, as though life were deserting them;" and where the 
teachers " stand immovably fixed to one spot;" and who, from 



29 

ignorance, " assume an awful and mysterious air, and must 
expound in oracles which themselves need more explanation 
than the original difficulty ; " and who are consequently worse 
than the dumb idols that cannot speak. " Boston " is not 
only mentioned in connection with the " fair proportion " of 
" Prussian and Saxon schools" visited, but it is the place of 
the secretary's official residence, and where all his official 
documents are issued. Who, at home or abroad, will not 
think of the metropolis, when they read the secretary's reflec- 
tions upon the teachers and schools of Massachusetts ? Mr. 
Mann says, the traveller, Laing, knows nothing of the Prus- 
sian schools, but he does ; and it is now said with equal 
boldness, that the Hon. Secretary knows comparatively 
nothing of the schools of Boston, but others do know much ; 
and to them, and their testimony, an appeal in the defensive 
must be made. Such an appeal is much needed to prevent 
the corrosive influence of the secretary's sarcasms. 

From the days of Mayor Quincy to the present time, the 
Boston public school system has received the constant atten- 
tion, and been under the vigilant supervision of some of the 
most philanthropic citizens and distinguished scholars. Be- 
sides the seven distinguished mayors, who have been honored 
with a reelection, and who have exercised more than a 
parental watchfulness over the school children of the city, 
such men as Shaw, Savage, Pickering, Sumner, Bowdoin, 
Hale, and Curtis, of the legal profession ; Warren, Hayward, 
Adams, Famsworth, Stevenson, and M'Kean, of the medi- 
cal; Pierpont, Wisner, Barrett, Gannett, Knowles, Croswell, 
Lathrop, and Streeter, of the clerical, have been among the 
enrolled and enlightened guardians of the city public schools. 
These names, with a host of others not less worthy that 
might be given, are sufficient to show that the Boston schools, 
at least, have not been under a "sleepy supervision." It 
may be confidently asserted, and, in the defensive with due 
modesty, that, under the guidance of such men, the schools 
in general have not been in the least behind other institu- 



30 

tions in the community. Such an assertion is warranted by 
the uniform opinion of the most competent judges who 
have fostered the system, and of impartial and disinterested 
witnesses who have had sufficient opportunity to understand 
the principles of instruction and discipline, which wise, judi- 
cious, and experienced men have directed and encouraged 
the teachers to pursue, regardless of visionary notions and 
Utopian theories. 

James Stewart, Esq., of England, a distinguished traveller, 
while in this country, (in 1829,) visited some of the city 
schools, and in his " Three Years in North America" he says, 
" The richer classes at Boston formerly very generally patro- 
nized teachers of private schools, who were paid in the usual 
way; but they now find that the best teachers are at the head 
of public schools, and, in most cases, prefer them; the children 
of the highest and lowest rank enjoying the privileges alto- 
gether invaluable in a free state, of being educated together." 
Now if this tourist was correct in his statements, is it reason- 
able to suppose that " eight years ago " we were rapidly tend- 
ing to the deplorable condition of things in England, as 
described by Mr. Mann, and which he says, " is the natural 
consequence of having no national system ? " This traveller 
further remarks : " I had opportunities while I remained in the 
neighborhood of Boston, of becoming acquainted with several 
of the masters, and their modes of teaching, and I believe 
there are nowhere better instructors to be found. Mr. *****, 

the teacher of the free school, and instructor of Mrs. 

P 's daughters, — both of whom are well educated, one of 

them particularly so ; indeed, as well-informed a young 
woman as is usually found in the upper orders in Britain, — 
invited us to his school, where we had ample proofs of the 
attention paid to the children, and of their acquirements. 
Their general knowledge, and the celerity with which ques- 
tions of some difficulty in mental arithmetic were solved, 
surprised us. The progress of the females was especially 
remarkable." 



31 

Many competent witnesses might be produced to show 
that the improvement and proficiency in these schools have 
been in accordance with the onward movement of the times. 
The Hon. Samuel A. Eliot, who was many years a member 
of the Boston School Committee, and three years Chairman 
of the Board, ever exerted a watchful eye over every thing 
connected with the physical, intellectual, and moral welfare 
of the rising generation ; and it was by his influence, through 
an able report, that the subject of the ventilation of the school- ' 
rooms here first received due attention, and that the physical 
comfort and the health of the children were greatly promoted, 
in breathing a better atmosphere. It was also mainly by his 
influence, that instruction in music was so successfully intro- 
duced. Mr. Eliot's services were commenced more than 
" eight years ago" and at a much earlier period than the 
time at which some have supposed reform was begun. In 
1834, after a critical examination of all the grammar schools, 
Mr. E. made the annual report, and the citizens of Boston 
cannot have better evidence of the state of the schools at that 
time, than may be found in his remarks. He then said : 
" The general condition of the schools, both in regard to 
discipline and instruction, is highly gratifying. So far as the 
committee are enabled to judge by their recent examination, 
the discipline of the schools is precisely what is most desira- 
ble, that mixture of firmness and kindness which is, at once, 
highly honorable to the instructors, and productive of the best 
effects upon the children. The committee have no occasion 
to qualify this remark or make any exception to it, with 
reference to any one of the schools; the same system is pur- 
sued by all, and apparently with equally beneficial effects. It 
is hoped that the perseverance of the masters will secure to 
them a similar commendation in future years. With regard 
to the kind, and amount of instruction, also, the committee 
perceived, as they thought, a much nearer approach to 
equality than usual. Substantially, the same methods are 
observed in all the schools, and the differences in the results 



32 

are such only as are presumed to be unavoidable, as well 
from the different powers of the pupils, as from the various 
applications of the same principles by different masters." 
. The Hon. Jonathan Chapman, the successor of Mr. Eliot 
in the mayor's chair, who was justly celebrated for his almost 
intuitive perceptions of the public welfare, after two years' 
official observation, remarked, in his third inaugural address, 
in 1842: " Our schools continue to maintain their wonted 
character, and to show themselves worthy of the deep interest 
that is felt in them by the government, and the ample provi- 
sions made for their support." 

The Hon. Martin Brimmer, who had been a distinguished 
member of the city government before he was elected to the 
office of mayor, in his first annual address, thus notices the 
public schools : " If there are any institutions of which our 
fellow-citizens may be justly proud, they are our public 
schools ; and to them the credit is due, since, from the earliest 
time, they have seen the immense importance of a sound 
education for their children, and have never hesitated cheer- 
fully to pay the tax requisite to accomplish it. Taken at the 
tender age of four years, the son of the poor but respectable 
individual may be advanced through all the steps of the pri- 
mary and grammar schools, to the high school, where his 
mind may be imbued with the higher branches of an English 
education ; or, if it. is preferred, he may receive, at our excel- 
lent Latin school, a thorough preparation for any university 
in the country. Can any system be more beautiful? Can 
any practice be more republican ? Happy the people whose 
sons and whose daughters may be well instructed at the 
public charge ; and happy, thrice happy that community, all 
of whose children shall receive a physical, moral, and reli- 
gious education, to the glory of God, and the service of the 
state." 

There could be no better exponent of the opinions and 
views of the School Committee, as to the efficiency and 
value of the school system, than the expressed sentiments of 



33 

such presiding officers ; and if any thing can be wanting 
to form a climax to the sentiments of the chief magistrates of 
the city, already quoted, it may be found in the last address of 
the present mayor, whose philanthopy and interest in the 
cause of public instruction, have led the School Committee 
to associate his name with one of the institutions of the 
city, so that for centuries he will be known as the friend and 
patron of the schools of Boston and the whole common- 
wealth. Mr. Brimmer says : " The last subject to which I 
propose to draw your attention is the condition of our public 
schools, which, it is believed, was never more satisfactory 
than at the present time. Under the instruction of able and 
faithful instructors, the progressive improvement of the 
schools is, from year to year, clearly perceptible. This im- 
provement is attributable to the high order of principal and 
assistant instructors in the several schools ; to the improved 
condition and better preparation of the children on admission 
from the primary schools ; and to the increased interest 
which the parents take in the public schools, and in the edu- 
cation of their children." 

" At no time has the importance of our school system been 
more fully appreciated ; if our city has been free, generally 
speaking, from scenes of riot and confusion, it is mainly 
attributable to our system of public education. It has been 
truly said, that if any thing will preserve tranquillity and 
order in a community, perpetuate the blessings of society and 
free government, and promote the happiness and prosperity 
of a people, it must be the general diffusion of knowledge 
and of moral education." 

"Will the Hon. Secretary say, that here is insufficient testi- 
mony in the case ? He cannot say of Messrs. Eliot, Chap- 
man and Brimmer, as he did of the " traveller, Laing," and the 
author of " The Age of Great Cities," that he does not believe 
they " had ever visited the schools " they presumed to com- 
mend so highly. It has been a matter of much surprise with 
many, that the secretary should speak with such emphasis 
5 



34 

against " Laing," and the author of " The Age of Great 
Cities," and with such confident assurance in praise of the 
Prussian schools in which all the exercises were in the Ger- 
man language. He might not, under such circumstances, 
judge as correctly, as he could of exercises in his vernacular; 
but having once pronounced the Prussian school system 
" completed," he would naturally think all was right which he 
did not so fully understand. Mr. Mann speaks, in his fifth re- 
port, of the " meetings which have now been held five succes- 
sive years in the counties of the State," and which " have been 
eminently successful in diffusing information." Nothing has 
been heard of such meetings in Suffolk, and the secretary has 
not thus diffused any information, in the metropolis, among the 
public teachers, to whom, indeed, he has hardly made himself 
officially known. Did he, in any of his annual circuits, 
collect any information from the civil fathers of the city? Did 
he know any thing more of their expressed views of the 
schools, when he published his seventh report, than he did of 
the views and services of the teachers ? If he did, and dis- 
regarded them, by supposing these schools were, in common 
with others, under a " sleepy supervision," he certainly ought 
to have made himself, in some good degree, personally ac- 
quainted with the schools and the teachers, before making 
such odious comparisons. Has Suffolk, who pays, most 
willingly, about one third of all the State expenses for educa- 
tion, no claim upon the secretary's attention and courtesy? 
Should it be said, though Mr. Mann may know but little 
of the Boston schools, others in this country, certainly know 
nothing of the schools in Scotland, and therefore the com- 
parison may be just, in consideration of the superior character 
of the Scotch schools ; it may be remarked, in answer to such 
a plea, that some of the Scotch divines, who were lately in 
this country, said Mr. Mann's account of their schools was 
a " real caricature." " Caricature " means, according to 
Walker, " any exaggerated character, which is redundant in 
some of its parts, and defective in others." This definition is 



35 

given for the information of " our " teachers, who " stand im- 
movably fixed to one spot," and " must have text-books " with 
" questions printed at full length ; " and who " hold on by 
these leading-strings ; " and must " assume an awful and mys- 
terious air, and must expound in oracles," and who, like 
Ichabod Crane, whip their children over all the tall words. 

It is as true of some generations, as of individuals, that 
they are predisposed to favor novelties ; and they often mis- 
take change for improvement. Many are inclined to think 
that much wisdom was born with them ; and, with the 
" scribes and pharisees," are ready to " say, if we had been 
in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers 
with them in the blood of the prophets." Historians and 
philosophers have ever considered the peculiarities of an age, 
as affording an apology for the individual ; and wisdom and 
benevolence will ever justify such a course. Men, who aim 
to please those " having itching ears," are often tempted to 
give up " sound doctrine," and " turn away from the truth 
unto fables;" but, highly favored is that community, whose 
children can say, " the law was our schoolmaster." Let any 
one read the writings of such eminent teachers as Page and 
Abbot, in defence of authority, for the best good of the child ; 
and he must admit, that those who prefer the mawkish senti- 
mentalism of certain advocates of moral suasion, have given 
up the " truth " for " fables." Let him read the common- 
sense notions and experimental views of the Rev. Mr. With- 
ington and the Rev. Joseph Emerson, in defence of the prin- 
ciple of emulation, and not of the abuse of it ; and likewise, 
Professor Stuart's interpretation of the scripture doctrine of 
the same subject ; and, it is thought, he will have little respect 
for the sentiments of those who are inconsistently declaiming 
against such a principle. 

The duties and obligations of the public teachers are not 
properly understood by many well-disposed persons. It has 
been asserted by some one, that the teachers in the common 
schools " are the governors of men, in a far more extended 



36 

sense, than are those legislators, who, with state and cere- 
mony, convene in the hall of the metropolis, to enact and 
promulgate laws. They are more than rulers, for he who 
forms is greater than he who commands. "While other men 
arrogate wisdom, and profess an ability to foresee, and predict 
future events ; the teachers, by their influence upon the chil- 
dren, are not uttering predictions, but, preparing fulfilment, 
and predetermining of what nature the future event shall be." 
This quotation is made, not to unduly magnify the teacher's 
office ; but rather to remind him of the importance of his 
calling, and the magnitude of his task. The office of school- 
master is no sinecure, where the public interest is rightly un- 
derstood, and duly regarded. 

Some modern philanthropists seem to imagine, that " half- 
hour systems," and clock-work machinery, like Mr. Brunei's 
" epistolary engine," will greatly "relieve mental drudgery;" 
and, that trick and flattery are safe substitutes for the wisdom 
and implements of Solomon. Such persons suppose one pre- 
scription will answer for all cases, and think the well-bred 
child and the refractory dunce can be influenced by the same 
high motives. But it is necessary to bear in mind, not only the 
results to be produced, but the character of the material to be 
wrought upon, when considering the " task of public instruc- 
tion." It is one thing to give form and figure to the wax, 
and quite a different affair to bring out the living expression 
from the flinty marble, and worse than flinty granite. 

What teacher does not tremble at the consideration of his 
task and obligations, when he reflects how much, for " the 
weal and for the wo " of individuals, depends upon his 
labors. A teacher, who rightly understands his duties, and 
feels the due responsibilities of his calling, will often endeavor 
to raise the thoughts and aims of his pupils above things 
of time and sense. A knowledge of all languages will not 
compensate for the want of moral sentiment. He is poor in 
the best of endowments, who has no benevolent feelings for 
his fellow-men. The navigator, on the broad ocean, may 



37 

calculate his relation to other objects, celestial and terrestrial, 
and thus steer his ship amidst numerous dangers ; still, if he 
understand not his relation to his Maker, and know not how 
to quell the storms in his own breast, and has yet to learn, 

To station quick-eyed prudence at the helm, 

he wants a knowledge of the true compass, to carry him 
through life, 

" Midst constant dangers, to the destined port, 
Unerringly secure." 

The path of the public teacher of youth is one beset with 
many and peculiar difficulties. In his most arduous and try- 
ing labors, the recipients of his influence, during his war against 
vice and ignorance, seldom appreciate his exertions. His obli- 
gations and authority, in loco parentis, are not duly acknowl- 
edged, and are reluctantly submitted to by many over whom he 
is placed, and to whom he is bound by sacred and moral con- 
siderations. Many of his most important duties are as sacri- 
ficing to himself, as they may be unsatisfactory to the feelings 
of his indolent and disobedient pupils. The practical teacher 
learns by his daily experience, that the delicate relation of 
parent and child, will often rise mountain-high before him, 
when he feels his official duties the most obligatory. The 
juvenile wanderer often finds the ready apologist in the 
doting parent ; and the teacher, who would be true to duty, 
as the needle to the pole, must rise above temporary con- 
siderations, in view of his obligations to himself, the state, 
and his God. Though he may often find himself a stranger 
to sympathy and gratitude, still he may well afford to cast 
his bread upon the waters, if he can be satisfied with the best 
of all rewards, the consciousness of doing good to young 
immortals ; and can live in the hope, " that our sons may grow 
up as young plants, and that our daughters may be as the 
polished corners of the temple." The situation of the public 
teacher is peculiar in many respects ; his influence and exer- 
tions must be with the human mind, under every variety of 
circumstances; and, in this country, he works for a sovereign, 



38 

who seldom acts alike at two given times, or in two different 
places. This sovereign has as many faces as there are indi- 
viduals in the community ; and though he temporarily dele- 
gates his power, he requires of all his servants, a strict ac- 
count of their stewardship ; and he often acts upon some 
arbitrary principle, which is no part of the established law of 
the family. The representative guardians of the public 
schools, as they succeed each other from year to year, though 
they wear the same mantle of power, often entertain very dif- 
ferent views of the duties and obligations of the teacher. 
What one may consider of paramount importance, another 
may regard with light consideration ; and an individual may 
acquire valuable experience, by the end of his official career, 
when he gives place to another of dissimilar views, and of 
no practical knowledge ; and thus the public teacher may be 
subjected to the most vacillating authority. There is no 
want of men of learning and benevolence ; but experience is 
often the greatest requisite to aid the teacher; and, " happy, 
thrice happy that community," who can boast of such a line 
of civil fathers, as have blessed the favored city of Boston, 
during the last twenty years. It may well be believed that 
the schools of the metropolis of New England have long- 
been under the guardianship of those, whose benevolence 
and care have increased in proportion to the number of the 
children. 

And, it may be said, without disparagement to past chief 
magistrates, that Massachusetts can now boast of one whose 
philanthropy extends to every benevolent cause among the 
people. By his example and eloquence, he has stood and 
spoken before tens of thousands, in one of the greatest re- 
forms of the present day ; and his influence has not been less 
salutary as Chairman of the Board of Education, amidst 
other official duties, in encouraging, by his visits, the instruc- 
tors and pupils in some of the largest public schools in the 
State. When public morals and public instruction are under 
such guardians, well may teachers and pupils rejoice, and all 
sav, Amen. 



39 



PRUSSIAN MODES OF INSTRUCTION, AND USE OF 
TEXT-BOOKS. 

In that chapter of the secretary's report, devoted to the 
description of the Prussian system of education, there are 
comments upon the mode of instruction and the use of text- 
books, which we think must exert an influence unfavorable to 
the interests of education. And since the high official station 
occupied by the Hon. Secretary, must inevitably give great 
influence to his opinions upon the subject of education, and 
the extensive opportunities for observation which he enjoys 
through the privileges of his office, must add, at least a seem- 
ing authority, to his suggestions, — we deem it not unfitting, 
that those who are not only deeply interested in the cause of 
education, but who are themselves practical educators, should 
bear their testimony on these subjects, to what they believe 
experience has proved to be truth, in order that the attention 
of teachers may be directed to a careful consideration of the 
same, before they adopt opinions which may be injurious to 
the interests they are laboring to promote. And in order that 
we may not be placed too much at disadvantage, in differing 
on questions of public education, from one whose opinions 
on that subject bear with them the presence of such decided 
authority as do those of the secretary, we deem it reasonable 
also, that we should state, in the outset, what we believe to 
be indispensable requisites to one who would decide upon 
such questions, and the position of Mr. Mann, in regard to 
such decisions. We doubt not that the Hon. Secretary is 
fully aware of the great responsibility involved in the exer- 
cise of the powerful and widely extended influence of his 
office; and that it is his desire faithfully to acquit himself 
in the discharge of that responsibility. But while we respect 



40 

his motives, we are by no means bound to extend the same 
courtesy to his opinions. 

In the first place, it is plainly his duty to proceed in the 
discussion of all questions of educational interest, with the 
utmost caution and candor ; and more especially do we 
deem it his duty, in all questions relating to the modes of 
public instruction ■, to be guided rather by the results of ex- 
perience, than by the theories of speculation. Further, in 
examining the results of different systems of instruction, he 
should separate, with impartial discrimination, the abuses of 
any system or method, from its proper and legitimate use. 
In these two points, we think the Hon. Secretary has, in more 
than one instance, entirely failed. Yet we by no means refuse 
him credit for entire devotion to the cause of education ; nor 
would we in any degree underrate the strenuous efforts which 
he has professedly, and we may say undoubtedly, made, in 
behalf of the interests of that cause. But there is requisite 
to one who would decide upon the comparative merits of 
different systems of education or modes of instruction, a 
thorough practical knowledge of their operation and results. 
It is not sufficient that he may have observed in one instance, 
the failure of one system, and in another, the success of an 
opposite system ; for the failure of the one, and the success of 
the other, might in several instances be the result of circum- 
stances, and no exponents of the real merit of either. 

It would not be just for him to condemn any method, 
because he may have witnessed the injurious results of its 
abuse ; nor candid for him, in the comparison of any two 
methods, to notice only the faults of the one, and the excel- 
lencies of the other. Now we believe the secretary has failed 
of caution and candor in both of the above particulars. Yet 
not through any want of zeal or attention toward the cause 
for which he is so assiduously laboring, — but rather from a 
want of that practical knowledge to which we have just 
referred, and which is indispensable to the right discharge of 
many of the duties which he has assumed. But to be satisfied 



41 

more fully that Mr. Mann has mistaken the sphere of his 
labors, and that we have not proceeded unfairly, basing our 
decision upon what, to a hasty reader, might seem a mere 
assumption of his ignorance of practical education, we will 
state more carefully, what we believe to be requisite to a prac- 
tical knowledge of the subject. 

To teach upon the subject of public education, and to 
decide upon the comparative merits of different systems of 
instruction, or government, it is necessary to be acquainted, 
not only with their apparent results, but also with the detail 
of their operation, and their effect in forming the mental hab- 
its of the pupils. To judge of this effect, and to decide upon 
this merit, it is not sufficient to have collected the statistics of 
a school's progress and condition, or to have witnessed its 
arrangement and operation, even ; but it is necessary to have 
become acquainted with the actual progress of the minds of 
the pupils, and to have become sufficiently familiar with the 
history of their advancement, to trace fully and fairly in its 
character, the operation of that system under which they have 
labored. Now this, we believe to be a task requiring too 
much time and attention, to be performed by one who has 
discharged duties so manifold and various, as those that have 
been enumerated, from time to time, in the report of the Hon. 
Secretary. He surely could not have devoted himself to that 
long and patient investigation which is necessary, to observe 
the effects of any system sufficiently to decide the question of 
its merit. He might have observed the uniform accomplish- 
ment of a certain amount of labor, or the attainment of a par- 
ticular stage of advancement in study ; but either of these 
results might be ihe product of tact and perseverance on the 
part of the teacher, and in no way the result of that particular 
method which he may have pursued. We would by no 
means be understood to prefer the charge of ignorance, in 
matters of practical education, as a reproach to the Hon. Sec- 
retary. Indeed, we do not deem it any ground for censure, 
that Mr. Mann should be unacquainted with all the various 
6 



42 

questions of educational interest; for the multiplicity and 
importance of those questions would preclude the possibility 
of such an attainment to one, the greater part of whose life 
has been engrossed by the pursuit of other objects. But what 
we most regret in the course of the secretary, is, that he 
has suffered his zeal so far to outstrip his discretion, as to 
induce him to undertake, not only the general supervision of 
all the various departments of labor, but also to assume in 
detail, the direction of the performance of that labor. And 
we regret this still more, since, holding as he does the seals of 
the highest official authority in the Board of Education, he 
has suffered himself to affix them to his own teachings on 
subjects of vital importance to the cause of education, yet, 
upon which, above all others relating to that cause, he has had 
the least opportunity to inform himself. 

"Would he not have promoted, in a greater degree, the inter- 
ests of education, and been more consistent with his own pro- 
fessed principles, if he had devoted himself more exclusively 
to awakening a feeling of interest in the cause throughout the 
State ; to bringing more laborers into the field ; and, where he 
found them weary and fainting, as he did in the poor town of 
Pawtucket, had he enlivened them with the warmth of his 
zeal and the inspiration of his eloquence ; and then, though 
they commenced to labor even at the eleventh hour, had he 
imitated the conduct of the worthy husbandman, and awarded 
them the full penny of his approbation, rather than, by leaving 
them like backward school boys in that disreputable position 
at the foot of his list, to have awakened in them the evil and 
bitter spirit of emulation, which he so much deprecates ? But 
to substantiate the position we assumed in regard to the 
opinions of the secretary, suggested in his remarks on Prussian 
schools, we invite the attention of the reader, to that page 
(133) of the report, in which Mr. Mann makes several state- 
ments, of the truth of which, he says, there can be no doubt. 

In paragraph numbered 3 on that page, he informs us that, 
in the space of six weeks, he visited hundreds of schools, and 



43 

saw tens of thousands of scholars. "We confess we are not a 
little perplexed to understand how Mr. Mann could, in thirty- 
six days, have visited so great a number of schools ; and the 
problem becomes still more difficult of solution since, in the 
paragraph introductory to those facts, upon which he placed 
so much emphasis, he states that he entered the schools before 
the first recitation in the morning, and remained until the last 
was completed at night. This statement of the secretary, 
reminds us of that facetious suggestion of his, on the 57th 
page of his report, where, after lamenting the want of practical 
mathematical instruction in our own schools, he says : " If a boy 
states that he has seen ten thousand horses, make him count 
ten thousand kernels of corn, and he will never see so many 
horses again." We think that if the Hon. Secretary should 
count in conjunction the number of days and the number of 
schools visited, he would never visit so many schools again in 
the same space of time. But supposing, for the sake of 
argument, that Mr. Mann did visit hundreds of schools, and 
see tens of thousands of scholars ; we contend that it would 
be impossible, in observing the operation of any system in so 
many different schools, in so short a period of time, to ascer- 
tain with certainty, any thing of the real effect of such system 
upon the minds of the pupils ; or to form any opinion even, 
save what might be grounded upon inferences of the probable 
results of the course pursued. Mr. Mann undoubtedly ob- 
served (as indeed he has informed us in his report) sufficient 
of the operation of the Prussian system of education, to answer 
the inquiries suggested at the commencement of the chapter on 
Prussian schools. He informed himself, unquestionably, of 
the branches taught; the processes of instruction; the motives 
employed to stimulate the minds of the pupils to action ; and 
observed, no doubt, the apparent results of the whole. In- 
deed, he seems to have been extremely expeditious in collecting 
statistics of the condition and operation of the European 
schools, and though we are not quite sure " to what extent " 
so great haste might not have been at the expense of accuracy, 



44 

yet he has presented in his report, an amount and variety of 
information almost wonderful. But he could, in his hasty 
review of schools, and scholars, form no just estimate of the 
actual effect of the course of mental discipline there pursued, 
upon the pupils. He witnessed the operation of a system 
universally regulated by rigid legal restrictions, and he seems 
to have been delighted to find the same causes leading 
always to uniform results ; and it may be a merit in the 
Prussian system, that such is the case ; for systematic action 
is to be desired in all institutions, though it have no merit in 
effect, save it be founded on correct principles, and subject to 
a proper direction. We think Mr. Mann has failed of caution 
in his estimate of the Prussian school system, and that the 
favorable impression which he received of some of its promi- 
nent characteristics, has been the only ground for pronouncing 
the whole perfect. 

In order, however, to decide more fairly upon this, let us 
review, briefly, some of his remarks upon the subject. He has 
given a description of the method of conducting a recitation 
of an advanced class in reading, as he witnessed it in one of 
the Prussian schools. He informs us that the teacher, in con- 
nection with the reading lesson, delivered a " sort of oral lec- 
ture" to his pupils, in which he entered, with the greatest 
minuteness, into an explanation of all the subjects alluded to 
in the lesson, enlarging upon the geographical references, 
instituting comparisons between the foreign customs alluded 
to and their own, and illustrating even the illustrations them- 
selves, until he had consumed an entire hour upon six, four- 
line verses. This method of instruction, the secretary evidently 
refers to as a superior one, and as meeting his entire approba- 
tion. Now we beg leave to differ from the opinion of the Hon. 
Secretary, and to pronounce this method, inconsistent with 
the purposes of public instruction, and by no means produc- 
tive of the highest results. And in order to treat the subject 
fairly, we will state our ideas of the object of public education, 
and the ground upon which we have based our decision. 



45 

The object of the elementary instruction of our public 
schools, as we understand it, is, not alone to impart a certain 
amount of knowledge to the pupils, but to give them more- 
over such training, as shall enable them to pursue the subjects 
which may afterwards claim their attention, successfully for 
themselves ; 1o cultivate their powers of discrimination and 
reflection, that they may observe and decide for themselves ; 
in fine, to discipline and strengthen their minds, and prepare 
them, as far as is possible, for that independent action, which 
will be required of them in the discharge of the duties of life. 
In order to accomplish these purposes, we believe the follow- 
ing requisitions to be indispensable. First, that the mind 
of the pupil be taught to grasp the object of its pursuit, with 
constant and vigorous attention ; secondly, that the mind 
be trained to habits of strict analysis in the investigation 
of all subjects ; and thirdly, that it be taught to classify 
and arrange properly, the subjects of its knowledge. The 
first of these requisitions is necessary, that the pupil may 
be able to master successfully, the difficulties of his studies, and 
to retain what he acquires; the second, that he may have a 
definite conception of what he learns, and understand the 
various relations and dependencies of the subjects which he 
investigates; and the third, that he may, when desirable, be 
able to make a practical use of his acquisitions. Now in what 
way does the method of instruction approved by Mr. Mann, 
operate in establishing these mental habits ? That the method 
pursued by the Prussian instructor, is calculated to interest the 
mind of the pupil, we would not deny ; for the variety of 
information and illustration must, without fail, gratify his 
curiosity, and for the time arrest his attention ; but it will in 
no degree induce that habit of patient and constant attention 
to a subject, to which we have before alluded. On the other 
hand, the variety of information presented, and the novelty of 
illustration, would tend rather to dissipate, than to strengthen 
the habit of calm and deliberate attention to a single subject. 
And the mind of the pupil, instead of forming the habit of 



46 

independent and individual effort, which is so necessary to suc- 
cessful study, would become accustomed to act only through 
the force of that excitement which is supplied by the teacher. 

Here, lest we be understood to hold in light esteem, the 
ability on the part of the teachers to arrest the attention, and 
interest the mind of the pupil, we expressly state, that we not 
only deem such ability of great importance, but that we con- 
sider it one of the highest qualifications of the teacher, and 
absolutely necessary to proper government and successful 
instruction. We do not object to the exercise of such ability 
on the part of the teacher, to arouse the mental energies of 
his pupils, to interest them in the pursuit of knowledge, and 
to call forth into action the higher qualities of their moral and 
social natures ; but we do object to the exercise of that ability 
to such extent, and in such manner, that the pupils be- 
come accustomed to depend, for their motive to mental eifort, 
upon that excitement alone which is furnished by their 
teacher. We would have them stimulated to the pursuit of 
knowledge, by a love of that pursuit for itself, and by a proper 
appreciation of its results ; and not by that temporary interest 
which is awakened by the pleasing manner or amusing speech 
of their instructor ; for, the former influence, becomes a con- 
stant spring of action in the mind, while the latter, depends 
for its existence upon the presence of the teacher who exer- 
cises it. Further, we believe that care is necessary on the 
part of the teacher, lest the stimulation and excitement, 
which the pupil experiences under his influence at school, 
should be so strong, as to produce a reaction, and, when that 
influence ceases, to leave the mind disinclined to exertion; its 
energies exhausted, and its faculties deadened. This state of 
mind must surely be most unfavorable to a perception of 
those " social, every-day duties and obligations," to which 
Mr. Mann very properly attaches so much importance. To 
illustrate our meaning more fully, we invite attention to the 
following description of Scotch schools, given on the. 66th and 
67th pages of the report : 



47 

" To an unaccustomed spectator, on entering one of these rooms, 
all seems uproar, turbulence, and the contention of angry voices, — 
the teacher traversing the space before his class, in a state of high 
excitement, the pupils springing from their seats, darting to the 
middle of the floor, and sometimes, with extended arms, forming a 
circle around him, two, three, or four deep, — every finger quivering 
from the intensity of their emotions, — until some more sagacious 
mind, outstripping its rivals, solves the difficulty, — when all are in 
their seats again, as though by magic, and ready for another en- 
counter of wits. 

" I have seen a school kept for two hours in succession, in this 
state of intense mental activity, with nothing more than an alternation 
of subjects during the time, or perhaps the relaxation of singing. 
At the end of the recitation, both teacher and pupils would glow 
with heat, and be covered with perspiration, as though they had 
been contending in the race or the ring. It would be utterly impos- 
sible for the children to bear such fiery excitement, if the physical 
exercise were not as violent as the mental is intense. But children, 
who actually leap into the air from the energy of their impulses, 
and repeat this as often as once in two minutes, on an average, will 
not suffer from suppressed activity of the muscular system." 

These are the schools in comparison with which, Mr. Mann 
says, the most active schools of the United States must be re- 
garded almost as dormitories, and by the side of whose pupils, 
our own would seem to be hybemating animals, just emerging 
from their torpid state, and but half conscious of the possession 
of life and faculties. Now we do not hesitate to say, that such a 
state of mental excitement as Mr. Mann describes in the above 
language, can not be healthful ; and that such extravagant 
mental exercise is not conducive to the formation of those 
thoughtful habits of mind, which alone can work out the re- 
sults of reason. And we most earnestly pray that our country, 
— whose citizens are already, to a great extent, destitute of 
habits of independent thought and deliberate action, and too 
much accustomed to think and act through the forced excite- 
ment of motives that may be, and often are, supplied by wicked 
and designing men, — may be kept forever safe from a sys- 
tem of public instruction which we think calculated to aug- 
ment so great an evil. And we trust that the energy and im- 
pulsiveness of our noble-minded youth, may not be subjected 
to a discipline, whose tendency must be to enfeeble, rather 



48 

than to invigorate, their mental faculties ; and to render them 
the weak subjects of passion, rather than rational freemen. 
May our system of education be designed to cultivate the rea- 
soning faculties of our pupils, and to render them not only edu- 
cated, but thinking men, qualified to support the institutions of 
our country, and to protect them against the invasion of mis- 
guided enthusiasm and the treachery of political ambition. 
But that we may not be charged with speaking from the authori- 
ty of our own opinion merely, we will again turn to the report, 
to substantiate our views. On the 176th and 177th pages, after 
commending the efficiency of the intellectual trainingin a school 
of high character in Edinburgh, and expressing his astonish- 
ment at the familiarity of the pupils with the writings of the 
New Testament, and at the wonderful facility with which 
they recognised the chapter and verse of different passages 
which he read to them, Mr. Mann makes the following 
statements : 

" Amazed at this command of the Bible by children so young, I 
said to myself, How happy T if their ideas and sentiments of duty 
correspond with their verbal knowledge of the great source whence 
they derive its maxims." " I then asked the class what they under- 
stood by the word ' honesty,' or, ' what it is to be honest.' After a 
little delay, one of the class replied : ' To give money to the poor ;,' 
and to this definition all assented. I then inquired what they under- 
stood by the word ' conscience.' Several replied, ' It is the think- 
ing principle.' I asked if all agreed to that, and all but one gave 
token of assent. This one, a remarkably intelligent looking boy, 
observing that I was not satisfied with the reply, said, ' Conscience 
tells us what to do;' and when f rejoined, 'Does it not tell us also 
what not to do ? ' he assented. I requested the class to give me an 
instance of what was meant by 'lying.' All exclaimed, as with 
one voice, 'Ananias and Sapphira;' but beyond this, though I pressed 
them for some time, they could present no combination of circum- 
stances which would answer the description of lying." 

After giving an account of various other questions similar 
to the above, Mr. Mann again says: "The children had been 
admirably trained in most respects, but their minds seemed 
not to have been turned in this direction." Now we cannot 
think with Mr. Mann that those children " had been admira- 



49 

bly trained ; " and we do think that their failure to answer 
his simple questions, and the obtuseness of their perceptions, 
plainly evinced by their inability to comprehend his repeated 
suggestions, satisfactorily show, that it was not moral training 
alone, which the pupils lacked, but intellectual; and, further 
afford fairground for the inference, that the intellectual training 
which they did receive was so mechanical and faulty, as to de- 
prive the pupils, to some extent, of the power of exercising their 
judgment, even in the ordinary decisions of common sense. 
And we are at a loss to conceive, how any one who had the 
least acquaintance with practical education, could have arrived 
at such conclusions, as did Mr. Mann from such data as he col- 
lected in the Scotch schools. He informs us that the exercises 
in those schools were conducted in such manner, that not only 
the mental, but the physical energies, of both teachers and 
pupils were called into action so violent, that, at the close of 
the exercises, they were all " glowing with heat," and " cov- 
ered with perspiration." We must confess, that in read- 
ing the secretary's account of what he witnessed in the 
Scotch schools, we were not a little troubled to divest our- 
selves of the idea that we were contemplating a vividly-colored 
picture of the imagination, and that Mr. Mann was indulging 
in a good-humored caricature of the modes of instruction in 
those schools, rather than giving a correct description of their 
actual appearance ; and we cannot conceive how any one 
could have experienced any other sensation than that of being 
amused, at beholding pupils, during- school hours, " actually 
leaping into the air as often as once in two minutes," or rush- 
ing up, all " covered with perspiration," after each successful 
encounter of wits, to assume the station of honor at the head 
of the class. But we will return to the train of our remarks, 
upon the mode of imparting instruction to pupils, from which 
we have been tempted somewhat to digress. We believe it 
impossible, when the subjects presented to the mind of the 
pupil are many and various, that he should retain, for any 
length of time, what the teacher imparts to him. Hence, on 
7 



50 

this ground alone, there is a double argument against this 
method of instruction. But, again ; this method, or rather I 
should' say, this want of method, is entirely destructive of 
those habits of analyzing and classifying, to which we attach 
so much importance in the cultivation of mind. 

We contend, that an allusion to a variety of subjects, in the 
same connection with the one to which the attention of the 
pupil is mainly directed, not only precludes the possibility of 
his analyzing and classifying what is imparted to him, but so 
confuses his mind, that he receives no distinct impression of 
the subject of his regular study. We would by no means 
deny, that an occasional reference to subjects of collateral 
information, or a full explanation of what may be new or 
obscure to the pupil's mind, may be proper or even neces- 
sary ; and, as far as our observation has extended, every compe- 
tent teacher supplies such necessity on the part of the pupil; 
but we do deny, the propriety of making each geographical 
reference, the subject of a lesson in geography, or of taking 
every technical word or historical allusion, as the text of a 
scientific or historical lecture. Such a course may amuse or 
interest the pupil for a time, or even a spectator, as it did 
Mr. Mann, who seemed particularly delighted with it ; but 
it calls forth no active mental exertion on the part of the 
pupil ; he sits the passive receiver of a variety of informa- 
tion, which interests him sufficiently to arrest his attention 
temporarily, or, perhaps, even to be mostly recalled at his 
next recitation. But this method of mental discipline can 
never form those habits of patient investigation and keen 
discrimination, which are necessary to master science, or even 
in order to arrive at any high results. But let us examine 
still further. In speaking of the difference between the Prus- 
sian method of teaching arithmetic, and our own, Mr. Mann 
says, that they require a more thorough analysis of all 
the questions than we do, but do not separate the pro- 
cesses so much from each other. Surely, the above is 
a most unfortunate comment upon the secretary's ability to 



51 

judge of the different methods of imparting mathematical 
instruction. If we rightly understand the matter, the analysis 
of a question in mathematics, necessarily implies the separa- 
tion of the different processes of its solution, and, a question 
containing but one process, if it be properly stated, must 
include the analysis of that process. We can easily conceive 
that Mr. Mann, with a preexisting prejudice against the use of 
text-books, might have been pleased with the Prussian method 
of teaching arithmetic ; but we cannot conceive how he could 
have formed his decision of its superiority, from notions so 
imperfect, as to admit of his making such vague and unmean- 
ing statements in regard to it. And yet, this is not the first 
instance of inaccuracy to be found in the writings of the 
secretary, on the subject of mathematical instruction ; in his 
sixth annual report, after deprecating the study of algebra 
in our schools, he proposes the following question: "Among 
farmers and road-makers, why should geometry take prece- 
dence, of surveying?" But, we leave this question to the 
consideration of mathematicians, and return to the remarks of 
the secretary, in his seventh annual report. He says further, the 
youngest classes in the Prussian schools are taught Addition, 
Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division, promiscuously; and 
that, in later stages, this practice is enlarged in more than one 
direction ; and in the same connection, he remarks to this effect 
— that they teach more from the understanding than we do, and 
less by rule, and that the difference results from their teaching 
from the head, and our teaching from text-books. Now 
we believe this to be one of the many instances in which the 
Hon. Secretary has been led into gross error, by his want of 
experience in education. Because he has observed the abuse of 
text-books in some of our schools, he has condemned at once, 
not only their abuse, but their use, also ; and adopted an 
extreme which we believe must be more injurious in its influ- 
ence upon the minds of pupils, than the greatest possible 
abuse of text-books, because it is entirely wanting in their 
method, and does not possess, in any degree, the same cer- 
tainty of accurate information. 



52 

But to show the way in which Mr. Mann has acquired his 
prejudices against text-books, we will again consult the report. 
On the 122d and 123d pages of. the report, Mr. Mann makes 
the following comments : " With us, it too often happens that 
if a higher branch — geometry, natural philosophy, zoology, 
botany — is to be taught, both teacher and class must have text- 
books. At the beginning of these text-books, all the technical 
names and definitions belonging to the subject are set down. 
These, before the pupil has any practical idea of their mean- 
ing, must be committed to memory. The book is then 
studied, chapter by chapter. At the bottom of each page, or 
at the ends of the sections, are questions printed at full 
length. At the recitations, the teacher holds on by these 
leading-strings. He introduces no collateral knowledge. He 
exhibits no relation between what is contained in the book, 
and other kindred subjects, or the actual business of men and 
the affairs of life. At length the day of examination comes. 
The pupils rehearse from memory with a suspicious fluency ; 
or, being asked for some useful application of their know- 
ledge, some practical connection between that knowledge 
and the concerns of life, they are silent, or give some ridicu- 
lous answer, which at once disparages science and gratifies 
the ill-humor of some ignorant satirist. Of course, the teach- 
ing of the higher branches falls into disrepute in the minds of 
all sensible men, as, under such circumstances, it ought to do." 
We freely confess that there is ground for this charge of 
the Hon. Secretary against the abuse of text-books, though 
we think the case which he presents, an exaggerated one, and 
one which, if it occurred in any intelligent community, 
would at once condemn the teacher who should allow it, as 
incompetent to his office. Yet we think the charge lies, in 
effect, against the abuse of the text-books only, and not against 
their legitimate use. We doubt not that, in some of the 
numerous schools of our country, there may be found incom- 
petent teachers, and that superficial and imperfect instruction 
is imparted, as the necessary consequence; but if, in those 



53 

schools, improper and unprofitable use be made of text- 
books, that fact furnishes no argument against their proper 
use, any more than does a poor school against the usefulness 
of good ones. But notwithstanding their liability to abuse, 
the secretary has evidently fallen into error, in his notion of the 
extent to which text-books should be used, and in supposing 
that accurate and well-digested scientific knowledge can be 
obtained without pursuing, with care and attention, a rigid 
course of study, in such a manner that the subjects of investiga- 
tion may be presented to the mind for continued and vigilant 
attention. We believe text-books to be necessary, not only as 
the medium of distinct and accurate information, but also to 
enable the pupil, (as we before said,) to acquire habits of dis- 
crimination and patient investigation ; and we believe care to 
be -necessary on the part of the teacher also, lest in his expla- 
nations and assistance to the pupil, he should render his task 
too easy. We would by no means deny the importance of 
ample explanations and illustrations from the teacher ; but they 
should be given, after the pupil has investigated the subject 
attentively for himself, and has prepared himself, not only to 
answer, but to propose questions. And the questions and 
illustrations should be designed rather to call into exercise the 
mind of the pupil, than to afford him a full and satisfactory 
solution of each difficulty that he encounters. We can easily 
conceive that children, in schools conducted according to 
the description which the secretary gave of the Prussian 
schools, would seldom be seen in tears ; and we venture 
to assert, that the teachers of our own country, should they 
pursue a system of instruction, requiring but little mental 
exertion on the part of pupils, and one designed to amuse and 
interest them, might avoid many of the occasions for punish- 
ment which now occur, and present, nearly, if not quite as 
much cause for gratification to the Hon. Secretary, as did 
the Prussian instructors. Moreover, it is highly important 
that all explanations and illustrations should be concise 
and explicit, and not be encumbered with much form, or 



54 

many words. To illustrate our idea, we will refer again to 
Mr. Mann's pattern of excellence, — the Prussian method of 
instruction. In his description of the Prussian instructors' 
method of teaching a young class to count, Mr. Mann says : 
"The teacher then asked, 'What is three composed of?' 
A. ' Three is composed of one and two.' Q. ' Of what else 
isjhree composed ? ' A. ' Three is composed of three ones. 
Q. ' What is four composed of ? ' A. ' Four is composed of 
four ones, of two and two, of three and one.' Q. ' What is 
five composed of?' A. "Five is composed of five ones, 
of two and three, of two twos and one, of four and 
one.' " And thus he proceeds, giving a description of the 
formation of several successive numbers, by all the possible 
combinations of the different numbers of units contained in 
them. Now we think it evident upon the slightest reflection, 
that all this variety of exercise does not give the learner any 
more accurate idea of the value of the different numbers which 
he is counting, but tends rather to weaken, than otherwise, the 
force of the simple method usually adopted. We think it 
would be decidedly more forcible, and certainly more simple 
to let the names of the numbers suggest their values, as they 
were designed to do. A unit is the standard of measure in 
numbers, and all numbers are named according to the number 
of units contained in them. Hence, to give a pupil an accu- 
rate idea of the value of numbers, it would surely be suffi- 
cient to explain to him that their value always depends upon 
the number of units which they contain. With all due defer- 
ence to the opinion of Mr. Mann, we are not yet convinced 
that the Prussian teachers have, in any degree, improved, in 
their method of teaching to count, upon the idea of those 
mathematicians who invented that system of numbers and 
the modes of expressing them, now in use. 

We think that we have witnessed, even in Boston, modes 
of imparting mathematical instruction to the younger classes 
of pupils, infinitely more simple, and surely more in ac- 
cordance with correct principles of analysis, than that so 



55 

highly approved by Mr. Mann. And we believe, had the 
secretary made himself acquainted with the method of teach- 
ing the higher branches of mathematics, pursued in that class 
of schools in our own country, which holds the same relative 
rank, as did those which he visited in Europe, that he would 
have witnessed examples of teaching, equally worthy of com- 
mendation with those of which he speaks in such high terms 
of praise in his report. We have witnessed in several 
schools which we have visited, even in the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, instruction in the higher branches of mathe- 
matics, which we think the secretary would have done well 
to witness previous to his visit to Europe, not only that he 
might have been better prepared to judge of the merit of the 
schools which he saw abroad, but that he might have selected 
and reported some of the examples of good teaching, from the 
schools of his own country, — and thus encouraged those teach- 
ers who are spending their lives in its service, by the " glad 
tidings " of their own success, rather than to have discouraged 
them, by comparisons which he is not yet qualified to make, 
and which are as bitter as they are unjust. We have seen 
not only " teachers standing before the black-board, drawing 
the diagrams and explaining all the relations between their 
several parts, while the pupils, in their seats, copied the figures, 
and took down brief heads of the solutions," but we have 
seen pupils at the black-board, constructing those same dia- 
grams, on scientific principles, and in illustration of proposi- 
tions drawn from their text-books ; further, even in these 
^dormitories " of ours, we have seen the " hybernating animals " 
sent to the black-board to solve questions in geometry and 
astronomy, original, with the teacher ; and with nothing given 
but the simple data of the questions, we have seen them 
construct original diagrams, and give accurate and concise 
solutions of the questions. But we leave this subject here, 
trusting that our remarks will lead to a careful consideration 
of all questions of public instruction, on the part of those 
immediately interested in the cause, and we shall have done 



56 

all that we hoped to do, if we succeed in awakening in the 
minds of those who are practical educators, a more earnest 
attention to the subject of public instruction, and in inducing 
them to come forth, and unite their efforts in contending 
against that tide of theories, which is fast sweeping away the 
landmarks of experience. And, however unwelcome the 
contest, we trust, that in the defence of what they believe to 
be truth, they will stand undismayed by the presence of 
power, and unshaken by the splendid conclusions of those 
imaginative educators, who would substitute the pleasing 
fictions of speculation, for the sound and sober dictates of 
reason. 



MODES OF TEACHING CHILDREN TO READ. 

Reading, justly deserves the first rank among the studies of 
our schools. As an accomplishment alone, it possesses 
intrinsic excellence ; but, considered as fundamental to other 
departments of learning, its value cannot be too highly esti- 
mated. In judging, therefore, of the merits of any system 
by which this branch may be taught, remote, as well as im- 
mediate effects should be duly regarded. A child, even at 
the threshold of his education, should be subjected to any 
delay, which the formation of correct habits may require. 
He should never be hurried over difficulties, at first concealed, 
yet, in his progress, unavoidable, simply to make his entrance 
into the temple of learning, easy and agreeable. A system 
of instruction is subjected to an unworthy test, when the chief 
excellence claimed for it consists in smoothing the path of the 
learner. To ascertain where the true path lies, and to exhibit 
what, to us, seems erroneous, are the objects of the following 
discussion. 

Though differing from Mr. Mann, upon this subject, we 
would, by no means, be supposed to undervalue his efforts in 



57 

the cause of education, or detract aught from the benefits 
his labors have conferred. Our dissent from his views arises 
from an honest conviction that, if adopted, they would retard 
the progress of sound learning. His opinions on the method 
of teaching reading, may be learned from the following quota, 
tions, taken from his second and seventh annual reports, and 
from his " Lecture on Spelling-Books, delivered before the 
American Institute of Instruction, August, 1841." 

" I am satisfied that our greatest error, in teaching children to 
read, lies in beginning with the alphabet ; — in giving them what are 
called the ' Names of the Letters,' a, b, c, &c". . ."Although in former 
reports and publications I have dwelt at length upon what seems to 
me the absurdity of teaching to read by beginning- with the alphabet, 
yet I feel constrained to recur to the subject again, — being per- 
suaded that no thorough reform will ever be effected in our schools 
until this practice is abolished." — Seventh Annual Report, pp. 91, 92. 

" Whole words should be taught before teaching the letters of 
which they are composed." — Lecture on Spelling-Books, p. 13. 

" The mode of teaching words first, however, is not mere theory ; 
nor is it new. It has now been practised for some time in the pri- 
mary schools in the city of Boston, — in which there are four or five 
thousand children, — and it is found to succeed better than the old 
mode." — Common School Journal, Vol. I. p. 326. 

" During the first year of a child's life, he perceives, thinks, and 
acquires something of a store of ideas, without any reference to 
words or letters. After this, the wonderful faculty of language begins 
to develop itself. Children then utter words, — the names of objects 
around them, — as whole sounds, and without any conception of the 
letters of which those words are composed. In speaking the word 
' apple,' for instance, young children think no more of the Roman 
letters which spell it, than, in eating the fruit, they think of the 
chemical ingredients, — the oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, — which 
compose it. Hence, presenting them with the alphabet, is giving 
them what they never saw, heard, or thought of before. It is as 
new as algebra, and, to the eye, not very unlike it. But printed names 
of known things are the signs of sounds which their ears have been 
accustomed to hear, and their organs of speech to utter, and which 
may excite agreeable feelings and associations, by reminding them 
of the objects named. When put to learning the letters of the alpha- 
bet first, the child has no acquaintance with them, either by the eye, 
the ear, the tongue, or the mind ; but if put to learning familiar 
words first, he already knows them by the ear, the tongue, and the 
mind, while his eye only is unacquainted with them. He is thus iri- 

8 



58 

troduced to a stranger, through the medium of old acquaintances. It 
can hardly be doubted, therefore, that a child would learn to name 
any twenty-six familiar words, much sooner than the twenty-six un- 
known, unheard, and unthought-of letters of the alphabet." — Ibid. 

" The practice of beginning with the ' Names of the Letters,' is 
founded upon the idea that it facilitates the combination of them [?] 
into words. On the other hand I believe that if two children, of 
equal quickness and capacity, are taken, one of whom can name 
every letter of the alphabet, at sight, and the other does not know 
them from Chinese characters, the latter can be most easily taught to 
read, — or, in other words, that learning the letters first is an absolute 
hindrance.". . . " The ' Names of the Letters ' are not elements in the 
sounds of words ; or are so, only in a comparatively small number 
of cases. To the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, the child is 
taught to give twenty-six sounds, and no more." — Seventh Annual 
Report, p. 92. 

" But, not only do the same vowels appear in different dresses, 
like masqueraders, but like harlequins they exchange garbs with each 
other." — Ibid, p. 95. 

" In one important particular, the consonants are more perplexing 
than the vowels. The very definition of a consonant, as given in the 
spelling-books, is, ' a letter which has no sound or only an imperfect 
one, without the help of a vowel.' And yet the definers themselves, 
and the teachers who follow them, proceed immediately to give 
a perfect sound to all the consonants. If a consonant has ' only an 
imperfect sound,' why, in teaching children to read, should not this 
imperfect sound be taught them ? And again, in giving the names 
of the consonants, why should the vowel be sometimes prefixed, and 
sometimes suffixed ? " — Ibid. 

" For another reason, the rapidity of acquisition will be greater, if 
words are taught before letters. To learn the words signifying objects, 
qualities, actions, with which the child is familiar, turns his attention 
to those objects, if present, or revives the idea of them, if absent, 
and thus they may be made the source of great interest and 
pleasure." — Common School Journal, Vol. I. p. 326. 

For the sake of distinction, and from its recent origin, this 
mode of teaching reading is called the new method. To 
whom belongs the honor of its discovery seems not to have 
been fully ascertained. Miss Edgeworth, in the opinion of 
Mr. Pierce, was the first to recommend it. " It is practiced," 
he says, " by Mr. Wood, late principal of the Sessional 
school, Edinburgh ; by Jacotot, the celebrated teacher of the 



59 

Borough school, and others. It is founded in reason and 
philosophy ; and it must become general." 

The plan of teaching, as developed by the publications of 
the secretary, by Mr. Pierce's " Lecture on Reading," and by 
various other publications, is substantially as follows : whole, 
but familiar words, without any reference to the letters which 
compose them, are first to be taught. The alphabet, as such, 
is kept entirely concealed. Some three or four words are 
arranged on a single page of a primer prepared for the 
purpose, or are written on the black-board several times, and 
in various orders, as follows: cat — dog — chair; dog — cat 
— chair; chair — cat — dog. These are pointed out to the 
child, who is required to utter them at the teacher's dictation, 
and to learn them by a careful inspection of their forms, as 
whole objects. After these are supposed to be learned, new 
words are dictated to the pupil, in the same manner as before. 
This process is repeated, till the child has acquired a sufficient 
number of words to read easy sentences in which they are 
combined. To what extent this mode of learning words 
should be carried, is, nowhere, definitely stated. Mr. Pierce 
says : " When they are perfectly familiar with the first words 
chosen, and the sentence which they compose, select other 
words, and form other sentences ; and so on indefinitely." 
He then proceeds to recommend several books, as containing 
suitable sentences for this purpose. Of these, one prepared 
by Miss Peabody, now Mrs. Mann, contains, he says, " a full 
illustration of the whole method, with words and sentences." 
Since this book is also recommended, by the secretary, as con- 
taining the best exemplification of the whole plan, it may be 
taken as a standard, by which to form an estimate of the extent 
to which the friends of the new system would carry this pro- 
cess of teaching words. 

More than a hundred words, having little or no apparent 
connection with each other, and arranged in the manner 
above described, occupy the first twenty or thirty pages. 
Then follows a reading lesson, in which these words, with 



60 

many more, are joined together in sentences. Subsequent 
to this lesson, and arranged as before, is another set of words 
followed by another reading lesson, and so of the remaining 
part of the book, save some . fifteen pages containing the 
alphabet, a few lessons in spelling, and a few cuts for 
drawing. The whole number of words in this " Primer" does 
not differ materially from seven hundred. Derivative words, 
though differing but slightly from their primitives, are, in this 
reckoning, to be counted, because this minuteness of dif- 
ference enhances the difficulty of acquisition. " When the 
scholars," says Mr. Pierce, " have reached this stage of 
advancement," by which, it is supposed, he means, have 
learned all the words contained in this or other books which 
he recommends, " you may teach them the name and the 
poiver of the letters, especially the latter ; though I can con- 
ceive no great disadvantage from deferring it to a still later 
period ; " that is, till they have learned more words. It ap- 
pears then, that at some period in the child's progress, after 
learning either seven hundred, a thousand, or two thousand 
words, he is to commence the laborious and unwelcome 
task of learning " the unknown, unheard, and unthought-of 
letters of the alphabet." Here, if ever, it is supposed, he 
begins to learn how to combine letters into words ; that is, 
learns how to spell ; and thus, by a new process, acquires the 
power of uttering words, without having them previously 
pronounced by the teacher. 

As this system is somewhat new, and has not been well 
tested by experiment, although its immediate adoption is 
earnestly recommended by high authority, it cannot be 
reasonably supposed that a system by which the present 
generation were taught to read, a system as prevalent as is 
the mode of alphabetical writing, and one which, from its 
long and uninterrupted use, has become venerable with age, 
will be abolished, unless good and substantial reasons can be 
given for such change. Indeed, change itself, is undesirable. 
If the new system can be shown only to be equally as good 



61 

as the old, no change should take place. Positive proof of 
its superior advantages alone, should be considered, or, at 
least, the probabilities of a successful issue, should so far 
exceed the chances of a failure, as to amount to a good 
degree of certainty. As, until quite recently, the secretary 
has presented, rather than strongly advocated the claims of 
the system, his opinions, have called for nothing more than a 
passing consideration. But, as his personal and official influ- 
ence is now exerted for its adoption, that our silence may not 
be construed into assent, we feel impelled to express a respect- 
ful dissent from his views. 

Aware that his position is to be sustained against prevailing 
usage, he has given his reasons for believing, " that no 
thorough reform will ever be effected in our schools until this 
practice [of beginning with the alphabet] is abolished." These 
reasons are drawn, 

1st. — From what he conceives to be the natural order of 
acquisition. 

2d. — From the anomalies of the alphabet. 

3d. — From an impression which he has, that " the rapidity 
of acquisition will be greater, if words are taught before 
letters." 

With us, as teachers, the main question is, whether or not 
we approve of the new system, and can recommend its uni- 
versal adoption. 

In assuming the negative of the question, it is first to be 
shown that the arguments urged in favor of the system, fail to 
make it even equal in value to the old, much more superior ; 
and, then, that there are reasons of a positive character, which 
are adverse to it, and serve to show it vastly inferior to the 
old system. 

Before entering upon a consideration of the separate argu- 
ments which have been urged in its support, some general 
remarks will be necessary, in order to remove whatever is 
irrelevant to the question, and to restrict it within its appropri- 
ate limits. 



62 

1st. — Whether words should be taught before letters, is a 
question which should be confined strictly to written language. 

That much irrelevant matter, employed in the secretary's argu- 
ment, arises from confounding written with spoken language, 
appears from the following passage in his lecture : " The advan- 
tages of teaching children, by beginning with whole words, are 

many What is to be learned is affiliated to what is 

already known." So in the quotation at the beginning of this 
article, he says : " But if put to learning familiar words first, he 
[the child] already knows them by the ear, the tongue, and the 
mind, while his eye only is unacquainted with them. He is 
thus introduced to a stranger, through the medium of old 
acquaintances." The principle here' claimed for the new 
system, is that of passing from the known to the unknown. 
The principle is good ; it is of its application that we com- 
plain. The secretary speaks of "familiar words;" the ques- 
tion arises, What is familiar? What is known? When we 
speak of words, we may mean either the audible, or the 
written signs of our ideas. The term word is, therefore, am- 
biguous, unless it be so qualified as to have a specific 
reference. In speaking of familiar words, nothing can be 
meant except that the child can utter them ; he knows them 
only as audible signs. To say that printed words are familiar 
to a child's tongue, can have no other meaning than that he 
is accustomed to the taste of ink ; to say that such words are 
familiar to his ear, is to attribute to that ink, a tongue ; and 
to say that they are familiar to the mind, is to suppose the 
child already able to read. Now, as reading aloud is nothing 
less than translating written into audible signs, a knowledge 
of the latter, whatever may be the system of teaching, is pre- 
supposed to exist, and is about as necessary to the one learn- 
ing to read, as would be a knowledge of the English lan- 
guage to one who would translate Greek into English. 

To illustrate. Take the printed word mother; when pro- 
nounced, it is familiar " to the ear, the tongue, and the mind." 
Does this familiarity aid the child in the least, in comprehend- 



63 

ing the printed picture ? Can he, from his acquaintance with 
the audible sign, utter that sign by looking upon the six un- 
known letters which spell it? 

The truth is, in all that belongs, appropriately, to the 
question under consideration, the word is unknown ; un- 
known as a whole, unknown in all its parts, and unknown 
as to the mode of combining those parts. The question, when 
restricted to its appropriate limits, is simply this ; ' What is the 
best method of teaching a child to comprehend printed words?' 
All that is said about the familiarity of the child with the audi- 
ble sign, and the thing signified by it, is claimed in common 
by the advocates of both systems, and is, therefore, totally 
irrelevant in the discussion of this question ; since what be- 
longs equally to opposite parties can have no influence in a 
question in which they differ. 

What though " printed names of known things are the 
signs of sounds which their [the children's] ears have been 
accustomed to hear, and their organs of speech to utter, and 
which may excite agreeable feelings and associations, by re- 
minding them of the objects named?" Is the rose any the 
less agreeable to the mind of the child, or, is the word rose, 
when pronounced, any the less familiar to his organs of 
speech or to his ear, because its printed sign is learned by com- 
bining the letters r-o-s-e? Or does the mere act of telling 
the child to say rose, while pointing to the picture, formed of 
four unknown letters, in any way enhance its agreeableness? 

The question, then, is not whether a child shall be " intro- 
duced to a stranger through the medium of old acquaintances," 
for, in fact, by the new system, this introduction is made 
through the medium of the teacher's voice. 

The true question at issue is, whether the child shall be 
furnished with an attendant to announce the name of the 
stranger, or whether he shall be furnished with letters of intro- 
duction by which, unattended, he may make the acquaintance, 
not of some seven hundred strangers merely, but of the whole 
seventy thousand unknown members of our populous vocab- 
ulary. 



64 

2d. — The question must be confined not merely to written 
language, but to written language of a particular species. 

When the secretary, in speaking of a child after the first 
year of his life, says that, then, " the wonderful faculty of lan- 
guage begins to develop itself," he undoubtedly refers to 
spoken language. And well may that be called a wonderful 
faculty by which, through the agency of the vocal organs, we 
can so modify mere sounds, as to send them forth freighted 
with thoughts which may cause the hearts of others to thrill 
with extatic delight, or throb with unutterable anguish. And 
no wonder that there should have existed, early in the history 
of the world, a desire to enchain and represent to the eye 
these evanescent messengers of thought. Hence the early and 
rude attempts at writing, by means of pictures and symbols. 
But these, unfortunately, were representatives of the message, 
not the messenger ; of the idea, not the sound which con- 
veys it. At length arose that wonderful invention, the art of 
representing to the eye, by means of letters, the component 
parts of a spoken tvord,so that now, not merely the errand, but 
the bearer stands pictured before us. The grand and dis- 
tinctive feature of this invention is, that it establishes a con- 
nection between the written and the audible signs of our 
ideas. It throws, as it were, a bridge across the otherwise im- 
passable gulf which must ever have separated the one from the 
other. The hieroglyphics and symbols of the ancients, per- 
formed but one function. To those who, by a purely arbitrary 
association, were able to pass from the sign to the thing signi- 
fied, they were representatives of ideas — and ideas merely; 
hence they are called ideographic characters, and that mode of 
writing has been denominated the symbolic, and is exemplified 
in the Chinese language. 

On the other hand, words written with alphabetic characters 
perform two functions. Taken as whole pictures, they, like 
Chinese characters, represent ideas ; but taken as composed 
of alphabetic elements which represent simple sounds, they 
conduct us directly to the audible sign which, in the case 



65 

of common words, we have from childhood been accustomed 
to associate with the thing signified. Owing to the last office 
which these words perform, namely, that of representing sounds, 
this mode of writing is called the phonetic. It has been said with 
truth, that " the art of writing, especially when reduced to sim- 
ple phonetic alphabets like ours, has, perhaps, done more than 
any other invention for the improvement of the human race." 
If any one wishes still further to be convinced of the differ- 
ence between the two, let him compare the figure 5, which is 
purely a symbol, with the written word Jive; the one gives no 
idea whatever of the spoken word, whereas the other conducts 
us directly to it. Here the contrast is too striking to be mis- 
apprehended. A person might read Chinese, without knowing 
a single sound of the language, simply because Chinese 
characters were never intended to represent sounds. 

The new system of teaching reading, abandons entirely this 
distinctive feature of the phonetic mode of writing, and our 
words are treated as though they were capable of perform- 
ing but one function, that of representing ideas. The lan- 
guage, although written with alphabetic characters, becomes, 
to all intents and purposes, a symbolic language. Now we 
say, as ours is designedly a phonetic language, no system of 
teaching ought to meet with public favor, that strips it of its 
principal power. And we confess ourselves not a little sur- 
prised that the secretary, who cherishes such correct views of 
the inferiority of the Chinese language, should urge us to con- 
vert ours into Chinese. He says, in his second annual report, 
( Com. Sch. Journal, Vol. L, pp. 323, 324 : ) "It is well known 
that science itself, among scientific men, can never advance far 
beyond a scientific language in which to record its laws and 
principles. An unscientific language, like the Chinese, will 
keep a people unscientific forever." Besides losing the van- 
tage ground which we now possess, of passing with ease 
from the visible to the audible sign, and the reverse, we meet 
with another objection to the proposed change. As our lan- 
guage was written with alphabetic characters, our words 
9 



66 

are too long and cumbrous for becoming mere symbols. A 
single character would be vastly superior to our iris syllables 
and polysyllables. If the new system prevails, we may soon 
expect a demand for reform in this respect. As it now is, the 
child must meet with all the difficulties that necessarily accom- 
pany the acquisition of the Chinese language, and these 
greatly increased by the forms of our words. 

The defenders of the new system seem to lose sight of the 
nature and design of the alphabetic mode of writing, as an 
invention. To understand an invention, we must first know 
the law of nature, which gave rise to it, and then the several 
parts of the invented system, as well as the adaptation of these 
parts, when combined, to accomplish some useful purpose. 
Thus, to explain the steam-engine, the chemical law by which 
water is converted into steam must first be understood, and in 
connection with it, that of elasticity, common to all aeriform 
bodies. Then follows — what constitutes the main point in 
this illustration — the explanation of the several parts of the 
machine, with the modes of combining them, so as to gain 
that immense power, which is found so valuable in the arts. 
Take another illustration, more nearly allied to the subject 
under consideration. It was discovered a few years since, 
that a piece of iron exposed, under given circumstances, to a 
galvanic current, would become a powerful magnet, and that 
it would cease to be such, the instant the current was inter- 
cepted. Little was it then thought, that this simple discovery 
would give rise to an invention by which the winged light- 
ning, fit messenger of thought, could be employed to enable 
the inhabitants of Maine to converse with their otherwise 
distant neighbors in Louisiana, with almost as much ease, 
as though the parties were seated in the same parlor. 

Now, no one will pretend, that to make use of the steam- 
engine successfully, all that is necessary is to gain an idea of 
it, as a whole. The several parts, with their various relations 
and combinations, must be explained. Equally necessary is 
it, in managing the magnetic telegraph, for the operator to 



67 

be familiar with the laws of electricity, and the adaptation of 
the several parts of the machine, to accomplish, by means of 
that agent, the object proposed. But who would think of in- 
terpreting the results of its operation, the dots, the lines, the 
spaces, by looking upon them as constituting a single picture ? 
To apply these illustrations. It was discovered, ages ago, 
that Nature had endowed the organs of speech with the power 
of uttering a limited number of simple sounds. From this 
discovery originated the invention of letters to represent these 
elementary sounds. Letters constitute the machinery of the 
invention. They are the tools by which the art of reading 
is to be acquired; and a thorough knowledge of letters bears 
the same relation to reading, as does a thorough acquaint- 
ance with the parts of a steam-engine, or of the magnetic 
telegraph to a skilful use of these instruments. The new 
system proposes to abandon, for a time at least, all that is 
peculiar to this invention ; all that distinguishes it from the 
rude and unphilosophical systems of symbolic writing, which, 
centuries ago, gave place to it, throughout every portion of 
the civilized world. Now, since such an estimate was placed 
upon this invention by the ancients, as to secure its adoption to 
the exclusion of all other methods of writing ; and since a 
trial of many centuries has served only to confirm mankind 
in the belief of its superiority over every other system ; we 
can but protest against the adoption of a mode of teaching, 
that subjects the child to such inconvenience and loss. 

3d. — Mr. Mann has not been more unfortunate in blending' 
spoken with written language, than in confounding the names 
of letters with their powers. 

All his remarks, therefore, which proceed upon the suppo- 
sition that the defenders of the old system advocate a plan of 
teaching, by which the name-sounds of letters are to be joined, 
as " 1-e-g " into " elegy," can have no weight in the discus- 
sion of this question. 

The word letter, as applied to the alphabet, is ambiguous, 



68 

unless accompanied by some term, or explanatory phrase, 
to show what is intended. In referring to one of the elemen- 
tary sounds which enters into the formation of a spoken word, 
we call that sound a letter ; so, in speaking of the conventional 
sign, which represents that sound to the eye, as the character h, 
seen in a printed word, that sign we call a letter; both the 
sound and the sign, take the name aitch, for example ; this 
name, in turn, is called a letter. Now, to prevent confusion, 
these three things, the power, the character, and the name, 
should be kept entirely distinct from each other. In a spoken 
word, elementary sounds are combined ; in a ivritten word, 
elementary characters ; in neither written nor spoken words, 
are the names of letters joined, except in those instances, 
where the name and power are the same, as in the case of 
the long sounds of the vowels. 

A perfect alphabet would require that the thirty-five elemen- 
tary sounds of the language, as given by Dr. Rush, should 
have each one representative, and no more. With such an 
alphabet, the transition from the written, to the audible sign, 
would be made without the possibility of a mistake ; and, 
equally certain would be the passage from the sound of a 
word, to its written sign, in which consists the art of spelling. 
But we have not such an alphabet. Ours is imperfect. A 
single letter has several different sounds ; the same sound is 
represented by different letters and combinations of letters, and 
many of the letters in some of their uses become silent- 
These anomalies are the cause of inconveniences as sensibly 
felt by the defenders of the old system, as by those who, to 
effect, for the child, a temporary escape from one difficulty, 
would thrust him into others equally great. The defenders 
of both systems agree that these difficulties must, at some 
time, be met and mastered. 

Were a language reduced to writing by means of a perfect 
alphabet even, it is not difficult to see how, in time, that alpha- 
bet would become corrupted. It is probable that, at the time 
of the invention of letters, it was intended that each character 



69 

should represent but one sound. But, as the sounds of the 
language to be written were better analyzed, either new letters, 
as among the Greeks, were added, or, the same letter was 
made to represent more than one sound. 

Again, different nations have adopted the same alphabetic 
characters ; but in applying them to the elementary sounds 
of their respective languages, the rules of uniformity were 
disregarded ; thus, the sound represented by e in English, 
is represented by i in French, and so of others. Then, as 
the words of one country, like its citizens, may emigrate to, 
and become naturalized in another, retaining, in the latter, 
their original orthography and pronunciation, new sounds 
must inevitably be attached to the same letter ; hence, the 
French sound of i in fatigue. In the same way, many equiv- 
ocal words have been introduced into our language ; thus, 
bark, derived from a Saxon word, means the noise made by 
dogs ; so, again, the same word, derived from the French 
barque, signifies a vessel, while the Danish word bark, signi- 
fying the covering of a tree, has been introduced, unchanged, 
into the language ; all of which give three widely different 
meanings to the same word. Add to these circumstances, 
the mutations to which every language is subject, from age to 
age, and it is easy to account for such changes as are seen in 
the words, could, ivould, should, and others, in which the I 
was sounded by the generation before us ; so also, usage 
requires us to retain the silent letters of such words as catarrh, 
phthisic, and many others derived from the ancient languages, 
that their etymology may not be lost. 

These various changes have created the necessity of refer- 
ring to the same alphabetic character and name some two, 
three, or more elementary sounds ; thus ce is the name of the 
character c; to this name and character we are obliged to 
refer a hissing sound, which is also represented by s; another 
sound represented by k ; and still a third, represented by z. 
Another evil arising from such mutations, is, that many 
letters, having become silent, must be retained in the forma- 



70 

tion of the written sign, although worse than useless in deter- 
mining the audible. 

Such being the three-fold meaning to be' attached to the 
word letter, and such being the condition to which various 
circumstances have conspired to reduce our alphabet, let us 
inquire, if Mr. Mann has not been led astray, by neglecting to 
make these necessary distinctions. 

He says, on page 92 : 

" The advocate for teaching the letters asks, if the elements of an 
art or science should not be first taught. To this I would reply, 
that the ' Names of the Letters ' are not elements in the sounds 
of words ; or are so, only in a comparatively small number of 
cases. To the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, the child is taught 
to give twenty-six sounds, and no more. According to Worcester, 
however, — who may be considered one of the best authorities on 
this subject, — the six vowels only, have, collectively, thirty-three 
different sounds. In addition to these, there are the sounds of twenty 
consonants, of diphthongs and triphthongs." 

Before proceeding to show that the secretary has con- 
founded those things which should be kept distinct from each 
other, it is necessary to correct an erroneous statement which 
he has made, respecting the number of different sounds in 
the language. It is not true, nor does Worcester, anywhere, 
as we can find, assert, that " the six vowels only, have, col- 
lectively, thirty-three different sounds." It is true that he 
assigns to a, seven sounds, — to e, five, — to i, five, — too, 
six, — to n, six, — and to y, four ; and that these several num- 
bers when added, amount to thirty-three. But if any one will 
take the pains to compare the sounds of y with those of i, 
those of a with those of e, and so on, he will find an illustra- 
tion of what we have already said ; that the same sound is 
represented by different letters ; and if he will go still further, 
and select from Worcester's table of vowel sounds, the different 
ones only, he will find less than half thirty-three. A little 
further on, he proceeds to say that " it would be difficult, and 
would not compensate the trouble, to compute the number of 
different sounds which a good speaker gives to the different let- 



71 

ters, and combinations of letters, in our language, — not includ- 
ing the changes of rhetorical emphasis, cadence, and intona- 
tion. But, if analyzed, they would be found to amount to hun- 
dreds." Here, it seems, he has fallen into the same error ; and 
his statements are calculated to mislead the reader. The great- 
est number of elementary sounds in our language does not ex- 
ceed forty-three. Barber gives the number forty-three ; others, 
forty-one. But Dr. Rush, who probably gave more time and 
thought to the analysis of the human voice, than any other 
person, fixes the number at thirty-five. Never, before, have we 
known it placed as high as hundreds. We have been the more 
careful to make these corrections, that the reader may see how 
much weight to attach to Mr. Mann's remarks on the 97th page 
of the report, where he makes use of these erroneous statements, 
to show a want of analogy between teaching reading, on the 
one hand, and written music, on the other. He says : 

" Some defenders of the old system have attempted to find an 
analogy for their practice, in the mode of teaching to sing by first 
learning the gamut. They compare the notes of the gamut which 
are afterwards to be combined into tunes, to the letters of the alpha- 
bet to be afterwards combined into words. But one or two con- 
siderations will show the greatest difference between the principal 
case and the supposed analogy. In written music there is always a 
scale consisting of at least five lines, and of course with four spaces 
between, and often one or two lines and spaces, above or below the 
regular scale ; and both the name of a note and the sound to be 
given it can always be known by observing its place in the scale. 
To make the cases analogous, there should be a scale of thirty-three 
places at least, for the six vowels only, — and this scale should be 
enlarged so as to admit the twenty consonants, and all their combi- 
nations with the vowels. Such a scale could hardly be crowded 
into an octavo page. The largest pages now used would not contain 
more than a single printed line each ; and the matter now contained 
in an octavo volume would fill the shelves of a good-sized library. 
If music were taught as unphilosophically as reading; — if its eight 
notes were first arranged in one straight vertical line, to be learned 
by name, and then transferred to a straight horizontal line, where 
they should follow each other promiscuously, and without any clew 
to the particular sound to be given them in each particular place, it 
seems not too much to say that not one man in a hundred thousand 
would ever become a musician." 



72 

Here the reader will see that Mr. Mann has compared an 
erroneous conception of the elements of our language, with 
an erroneous conception of the elements of written music. 
A scale of thirty-three places, at least, for the six vowels 
only ! And this scale so enlarged as to admit the twenty 
consonants, and all their combinations with the vowels I It 
will suffice to say, concerning this scale, that it must be very 
much reduced ; so that he need not be alarmed at the cum- 
brous size to which our books may attain. But, Mr. Mann 
seems to be entirely unacquainted with the nature and diffi- 
culties of written music, or, at least, he has given, if any at 
all, a very imperfect and erroneous exhibition of them. 

In the science of Music, the Natural or Diatonic scale, con- 
sists of eight sounds or tones. The five intermediate tones 
furnished by the Chromatic scale, added to these, increase the 
number to thirteen different sounds. 

The compass of the human voice, if cultivated, is sufficient 
to embrace about two and a half octaves, or from thirty to 
thirty-five different sounds. With instruments, the number 
of different sounds may be extended almost without limit. 
We are concerned, however, with the human voice. It will be 
seen that the number of sounds which are to be represented 
by visible symbols, in music, is about the same as the number 
of elementary sounds in our language. It will be seen, 
moreover, that it is not one " scale," [staff ?] with its added 
lines, that can represent these thirty or thirty-five different 
sounds. There is a staff 1 for the Base, one for the Tenor, 
and one for the Alto and Soprano. Besides, it should be 
understood, that a note on a given line or space, affected by a 
flat or sharp, is sounded in the former case, half a tone higher, 
and in the latter, half a tone lower, than it otherwise would 
be ; or, in other words, it can have, without changing its posi- 
tion in the staff, three different sounds. But, it is not in 
this particular, that the principal difficulty consists. A note 
placed on the letter C, for example, will, in all cases, receive 
the same absolute sound. It now stands as 1, or the key 



73 

note, and the syllable do, is applied to it. Let F be sharped, 
and then, although this note still has the same sound as be- 
fore, its relation to the other notes is entirely changed. It 
now becomes 4 of the scale, and the syllable fa is applied 
to it. Let C now be sharped, and the note still remains un- 
changed on the staff, but the original sound is lost from the 
scale ; the note which then represented it, becomes 7 of the 
scale, and is called si. Next, let D be sharped, and a similar 
change takes place, and so on, till all the notes are sharped. 
Again, taking the scale as at first, let B be affected by a 
flat, and the original key-note becomes 5 of the scale, and 
is called sol; then let E be flatted, and so on, till all the 
notes have been flatted, and changes of relation will take 
place for every successive flat. Now, a change of this kind, 
affects the relation, not of one merely, but of every note 
of the scale, and the number of changes far exceeds the high- 
est number of sounds attached to any letter of the alphabet. 
If any one will take the trouble to estimate the whole number 
of such changes, for all the notes, he will discover some of the 
difficulties to be overcome by ihe pupil in this branch of 
science. Each transposition of the scale is equivalent to 
giving a new sound to each note ; it does give a new name, 
and a new relation. The only point, therefore, in which the 
analogy fails, is this : the number of changes which a note 
may undergo, is much greater than the number of sounds 
represented by any letter ; and the labor of acquiring the notes 
of music, is very much greater than that of learning the letters 
of the alphabet. Such, certainly, is the opinion of the ablest 
professors of music in our country. 

In respect to emphasis, pauses, and expression, reading and 
music are analogous ; and so, in regard to the elements, in all 
essential points, they resemble each other So much has been 
said, to correct an erroneous statement, and the conclusion 
drawn from it. Let us now inquire, if the secretary has not 
fallen into an error, equally inexcusable, from a misconception 

of the several functions of a letter. We understand him tacitly 
10 



74 

to concede the principle, that " the elements of an art or 
science should be first taught." But, in his subsequent 
remarks, if we comprehend their design, he denies, that the 
defenders of the old system are entitled to this conceded prin- 
ciple, because the names of the letters are not elements in the 
sounds of words. We never supposed, nor do we know 
of a single advocate of the old system, who ever supposed, 
that the names of letters, entered into the formation of words ; 
as, h-a-t, into aitchaitee ; " 1-e-g," into " elegy." 

Names were not given to letters for such a purpose. They 
were assigned to them, for the same reason that names are given 
to other objects, to aid us in referring to the objects themselves. 
One would scarcely expect to convince even a child, that there 
was neither pastry, fruit, cinnamon, nor sugar, in the pie he 
was eating, by telling him that pies are never made of such 
names as pastry, cinnamon, &c. 

We agree with Mr. Mann, when he says that, with the 
exception of the long sounds of the vowels, " the ' Names of 
the Letters' are not elements in the sounds of words;" but we 
differ from him, if he denies that the characters, called letters, 
are elements in printed words, or that the sounds which they 
represent, are elements in spoken words. One, or both of 
these two things are implied, when it is asserted, that letters 
are elements in the formation of words. 

The question then returns. Should not letters be taught be- 
fore words ; since, in two important respects, they are elements? 

The argument, found upon the next four or five pages of 
the report, proceeds upon the supposition that the name-sounds 
of letters, are combined into words ; and if it will avail the 
secretary anything, we are ready to grant that he has fully 
shown, what would have been most cheerfully admitted at 
the outset, that " the names of the letters, are not elements in 
the sounds of words." But when he, in apparent triumph, 
says, "this, surely, is a most disastrous application of the 
principle, that the elements of a science must be first taught," 
we cannot resist the conviction, that his is a most disastrous 



75 

application of logic, to the true question at issue. That the 
fallacy in his argument, consists in confounding the names 
and powers of letters, is obvious from the following : " To 
the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, the child is taught to 
give twenty-six sounds, and no more." Now, if he means 
that he has discovered the fact, that instructers, everywhere, 
have fallen into the palpable error of teaching children, that 
to the twenty-six alphabetic characters, only twenty-six ele- 
mentary sounds are attached, the wonder is, since he believes 
there are hundreds of such sounds, that he has not, by his 
journal, or otherwise, sought to correct such defective instruc- 
tion. But, if he means, by the " twenty-six sounds, and no 
more," merely the sounds given to the names of the letters, 
he has either accused the teachers of this country of totally 
neglecting one essential function of the letters, or else, he 
himself has failed to make the proper distinction between 
the name of a letter, and its power. If the former is the 
meaning, and if he intended the above remark as a rebuke to 
teachers for neglecting to give the elements of sound, as well 
as the names of letters, we reply that, though it may, to some 
extent, be deserved, it is too unqualified. There are not a few 
instructers, w T ho teach the children to associate together, the 
names, the forms, and the powers of the letters. But, what 
surprises us most, if this be the meaning, is, that Mr. Mann 
should discover from such defective instruction, reasons for a 
total neglect of the alphabet, till after the child has learned to 
read. Some teachers may neglect to require the meaning of 
words. Is this a reason why words should be entirely set 
aside, till the child can first read whole paragraphs ? 

The most probable interpretation of the passage, is, that 
Mr. Mann did not have in his mind a clear perception of the 
difference between the name-sound of a letter, and its power. 
This explanation is rendered still more probable from the 
following allusion to the Greek letters : " Will the names of 
the letters, kappa, omicron, sig-ma, mu, omicron, sigma, make 
the word kosmos?" Has any defender of the old system 



76 

ever asserted that they would ? Yet, would the secretary 
have us suppose that if those names should fall upon the ear 
of one familiar with the Greek alphabet, he would notj at 
once, utter kosmos as the combination of the elementary 
sounds which those letters name. 

If these quotations fail to convince the reader ; let him 
take the following passage on the 33d page of Mr. Mann's 
lecture : 

" The faculty of judgment, the power by which we trace relations 
between causes and effects, and by which we expect the same results 
from the same antecedents, will be perpetually baffled if we attempt 
to spell words according to the vocal power, or name sound, as it is 
sometimes called, of the letters as presented in the alphabet; or, 
if we infer, that one word should be spelled so or so, because 
another is spelled so or so." 

Here it will be seen that he makes the vocal poiver of a 
letter, and its name-sound identical ; that is, he has defined 
the meaning of vocal poiver, as he understands it. The 
name-sound of a letter is the sound given to its name, as the 
sound of the syllable be, ce, em, &c. ; whereas, the vocal 
power of a letter is the sound that letter receives in combination, 
as the sound of b, in b ut, &ate. The reader can determine the 
sound, by directing the attention to what precedes the sound 
of ut, in the former, and ate, in the latter example. In this 
instance, the blending of the name and power is not left as 
a matter of inference. Let any one carefully examine the 
pages of the secretary's report, from the 92d to the 99th, and 
he will find many other examples of the same error. 

But, we apprehend that Mr. Mann has been induced to 
bring forward, once more, his theory of teaching words 
before letters, from what he saw in the Prussian schools. He 
says : 

" When I first began to visit the Prussian schools, I uniformly 
inquired of the teachers, whether in teaching children to read, they 
began with the ' Names of the Letters,' as given in the alphabet. 
Being delighted with' the prompt negative which I invariably received, 



77 

I persevered in making the inquiry, until I began to perceive a look 
and tone on their part not very flattering to my intelligence, in con- 
sidering a point so clear and so well settled as this, to be any longer 
a subject for discussion or doubt. The uniform statement was, 
that the alphabet, as such, had ceased to be taught, as an exercise, 
preliminary to reading, for the last fifteen or twenty years, by every 
teacher in the kingdom. Whoever will compare the German lan- 
guage with the English, will see that the reasons for a change are 
much stronger in regard to our own, than in regard to the foreign 
tongue." 

Now, we have supposed the word alphabet to be a generic 
term, including all the letters of the alphabet; and that each let- 
ter has the three-fold meaning already attached to it. But, if 
in Prussia, it signifies simply the names of the letters, we will 
endeavor to bear that in mind. If we compare the Prussian 
mode of teaching children to read, as described by Mr. Mann, 
with the following portion of the above statement, it will be 
seen that alphabet, as there used, can mean nothing more than 
the names of the letters. " The uniform statement was," he 
says, " that the alphabet, as such, had ceased to be taught as 
an exercise preliminary to reading, for the last fifteen or 
twenty years, by every teacher in the kingdom." According 
to his description of their method of teaching children to 
read, it appears that the forms of the letters were first 
taught, then their powers, and finally the art of combining 
the forms into written words, and the poivers into spoken 
words ; so that nothing can be left for the meaning of alpha- 
bet, as here used, but the names of letters. But, we ask, if 
teaching the forms and powers of the letters, is not teaching 
the alphabet, or all in it, that is absolutely essential to read- 
ing? To teach the whole alphabet, as we understand it, is 
to teach all that belongs to it, not omitting the names of the 
letters, as do the Prussian teachers, at first. 

It appears from the last sentence of the above quotation, that 
Mr. Mann thinks, if such a change as the omission of the 
names of letters was needed in Prussia, a comparison of the 
German and English languages will show a greater demand 
for a change in the latter. What change, we ask ? Such an 
one as theirs ? 



78 

Let the following passage answer : 

" There are two reasons why this lautir, or phonic method, [that 
is, the method of the Prussian and Saxon teachers, just described,] is 
less adapted to the English language than to the German ; — first, 
because our vowels have more sounds than theii-s, and secondly, be- 
cause we have more silent letters than they. This is an argument, 
not against their method of teaching, but in favor of our com- 
mencing to teach by giving words before letters. And I despair 
of any effective improvement in teaching young children to read, 
until the teachers of our primary schools shall qualify themselves to 
teach in this manner; — I say until they shall qualify themselves, 
for they may attempt it in such a rude and awkward way as will 
infallibly incur a failure. As an accompaniment to this, they should 
also be able to give instruction according to the lautir or photric 
method." 

Now, how the secretary could discover, from the purely 
alphabetic and elementary method of teaching which he wit- 
nessed in Prussia, reasons for such a change, one which 
converts our language into Chinese, we cannot easily con- 
ceive. It is true, that he adds, " as an accompaniment to 
this, they [teachers] should also be able to give instruction 
according to the lautir or phonic method." But this seems to 
be only a secondary consideration ; they should be able to do 
it. Besides, from the description of the new system which he 
has given, and sanctioned as given by others, it would seem 
that this kind of instruction could not well be given till the 
child can read easy sentences. Were it not for two reasons, 
which affect the question in degree, only, not in kind, Mr. 
Mann, it appears, would recommend that we adopt the Prus- 
sian method. But these reasons shall be considered in their 
appropriate place. 

Mr. Mann has been led, as we believe, to recommend anew, 
this system of teaching words before letters — a system as wide 
asunder from the Prussian, as are the poles from each other — 
imply from confounding the names of letters with their powers. 
They, at first, omit the names of the letters, or, as he affirms 
that they say, " the alphabet." But they teach every thing 
else that belongs to a letter, and, probably, soon after, the 
names themselves. 



79 

And, now why should the name be omitted ? To neglect 
the names of letters is to destroy, at once, one of the most im- 
portant exercises of the primary school ; that is, oral spelling. 
That letters must have names to aid us in referring to them, 
no one will deny. Otherwise, how could Mr. Mann have read 
such a passage as the following from his lecture ? " Ph is f; 
and c is uniformly concealed in s, or sacrificed as a victim to 
k or zP Bid he give simply the powers of the letters/, c, s, k, 
and z ? or, did he hold up a card and point them out ? or, did 
he speak their names 1 . If, then, letters must have names, 
why should the child be kept in ignorance of them ? One 
of the first inquiries of a child, on seeing a new object is, 
" What is it?" " What do you call it?" or, in other words, 
"What is its name?" Shall such inquiries be silenced, when 
made respecting the alphabet? 

Besides, the names of the letters, in most cases, must, when 
spoken, differ from their powers ; that is, the name of a letter 
and its power cannot be identical. Yet, it is evident, from the 
following quotation from the 96th page of the report, that there 
exists in the mind of the secretary an impression that the use- 
fulness of the alphabet, in teaching reading, is very much di- 
minished, from the want of a perfect coincidence between the 
powers of the letters and their name-sounds : " I believe it is 
within bounds to say, that we do not sound the letters in read- 
ing once in a hundred times, as we were taught to sound 
them when learning the alphabet. Indeed, were we to do so 
in one tenth part of the instances, we should be understood by 
nobody. What analogy can be pointed out between the 
rough breathing of the letter h, in the words ivhen, ivhere, hoiv, 
&c, and the ' name-sound,' (aytch, aitch, or aych, as it is 
given by different spelling-book compilers,) of that letter, as it 
is taught from the alphabet?" Will the secretary give a 
name to A, or p, orb; or indeed to any of the consonants, which 
shall sound exactly like the power of the letter ? We mean 
one that can become sufficiently audible to subserve all the 
purposes of a name ; one that can be represented to the eye, 



80 

like the name of any other object ? Why should not a letter 
have a name, as well as a peach ? And if so, why should 
the name of the letter resemble that letter, any more than 
the name of the peach should resemble that fruit ? We can 
see no necessity for such resemblance. True, the name of a 
letter, when uttered, is a sound ; and the power is a sound ; 
and for the most part, a different one ; so is thunder itself very 
different from the sound of its name ; yet we never complain 
of that name as inadequate to call to mind the idea of thunder. 
The Greeks have nowhere, as we have seen, complained of 
any difficulty in associating their dissyllables, alpha, beta, 
gamma, delta; and trissyllables, omicron and omega, with 
the elements of sound to which they refer. Yet how untoward 
are these names, compared with ours. The resemblance be- 
tween the names of most of our letters and their powers is so 
marked, as to afford no little assistance in combining letters 
into words. The dissimilarity, of which so much complaint 
has been made, might never have been mentioned, had it not 
been for such resemblances as now exist. The names of the 
vowels, and their long sounds, with the exception of y, are the 
same. The names of most of the consonants contain the ele- 
mentary sound joined to a vowel, which either precedes or 
follows it. And here, we see again, the same want of dis- 
tinction as before. " And again," says Mr. Mann, " in giving 
the names of the consonants, why should the vowel be some- 
times prefixed, and sometimes suffixed ? " So on the 98th 
page, he says : 

" There is one fact, probably within every teacher's own observa- 
tion, which should be decisive on this subject. In learning the 
alphabet, children pronounce the consonants as though they were 
either preceded or followed by one of the vowels ; — that is, they 
sound b, as though it were written be, and /, as though written 
ef. But when they have advanced ever so little way in reading, do 
they not enunciate words where the letter b is followed by one of 
the other vowels, or where it is preceded by a vowel, as well as 
words into which their own familiar sound of be, enters? For 
example, though they have called b a thousand times as if it were 
written be, do they not enunciate the words ball, bind, box, bug, &c. 
as well as they do the words besom, beatific, &c ? They do not say 
be-all, be-ind, be-ox, be-ug, 4*c." 



81 

Since it is not the name, but the power, which enters into 
combination, of what consequence is it, whether the vowel is 
prefixed or suffixed ! We might as well have eb as be ; me 
as em ; le as el. Whatever be the name, whether eb or be, 
it does not enter into the formation of words, as eb-ug, or 
u be-ug;" so h, when represented to the eye as aitch, is the 
printed sign, or to the ear, as when pronounced, is the audible 
sign, of a rough breathing. 

We cannot believe that even Mr. Mann himself would so 
disgrace the alphabet, as to reduce it to a file of anonymous 
letters, merely because their real names do not, at once, dis- 
play all their virtues. 

Such are some of the errors, at least as it seems to us, into 
which Mr. Mann has fallen, from a misconception of the 
offices performed by the letters of the alphabet. 

\th. — Whatever the secretary has said by way of ridicule, 
calculated to disparage the alphabet, ought to receive no con- 
sideration in the discussion of this question. 

It is somewhat amusing that Mr. Mann should indulge in 
occasional merriment, even in the midst of so much confusion. 
We do not complain of it, but simply ask that it may receive 
no weight, when indulged in at the expense of the poor alpha- 
bet. In speaking of the devices which some humane teachers 
used to practice, he says in his lecture, page 17th : " He [the 
teacher] used to tell us that a stands for apple, to call o, round 
o, s, crooked s, t, the gentleman with a hat on;" and adds, 
" What manner of ejaculation would that be, which, instead 
of the unvarying sound of the word ' sot,' for instance, should 
combine the three sounds which the child had been taught to 
consider as the powers [?] of the letters composing it; viz. 
'crooked s, round o, gentleman with a hat on ? '" " Yet, this 
is the way," he adds, " in which many of us were taught to 
read." A more grave assertion. 

So, in his last report, he says : " If b, is be, then be is bee, 
the name of an insect ; and if I is el, then el is eel, the name of 
11 



82 

a fish; " that is to say, if the object named, is the same as the 
name itself, then that name becomes the name of an insect, or 
of a fish. Surprising! 

All printed names of objects are formed from printer's ink. 
Bee is the printed name of an object; and since the object 
itself is the same as its name, it follows that this insect is only 
printer's ink. It is, therefore, harmless, unless it is that re- 
markable bee that has three stings ; for we are told that — 

' No bee has two stings ; ' and that, ' one bee has one more 
sting than no bee ; ' therefore, it would seem that one bee 
(and perhaps, this one) has three stings. 

As for the eel, fit emblem of the logic that caught it, we 
will leave it to hands best able to retain it. 

In his lecture before the American Institute, he says, page 
16th, after giving an analysis of the sources of pleasure to a 
child, among which he includes form, " In regard to all the 
other sources of pleasure, — beauty, motion, music, memory, — 
the alphabetic column presents an utter blank. There stands 
in silence and death, the stiff perpendicular row of characters, 
lank, stark, immovable, without form or comeliness, and, as to 
signification, wholly void. They are skeleton-shaped, blood- 
less, ghostly apparitions, and hence it is no wonder that the 
children look and feel so death-like, when compelled to face 
them." 

This, truly, is a dismal picture. How much less do the 
characters employed to designate numbers, deserve ? And 
shall we neglect to teach them to children, because they are 
thus " bloodless " and " skeleton-shaped ? " 

So, again, if such a reform is called for on account of the 
" bloodless " forms of our letters, we should suppose that it 
ought to be extended to music, requiring a similar change in 
teaching that science ; such, for example, as teaching whole 
measures, or whole tunes, before notes. For, after applying 
nearly all the chilling epithets, which Mr. Mann employs in 
reference to the letters of the alphabet, one might go on 
further, and say of those used in music, that while some have 



83 

from one to four fangs, others are tadpole-shaped, and there- 
fore disgust by calling to mind loathsome reptiles; some 
are bound together in little groups, showing a degree of so- 
cial affinity; others refuse all alliance whatever, and stand 
aloof from each other in wilful solitude ; and even if they had 
any kindred feeling, they are kept asunder by immovable 
bars. The faces of some are white, while those of others are 
black; and these two classes are mingled together without dis- 
tinction of color. Besides, some, in their pride, rear their 
heads above the lines assigned to the common classes, while 
others are depressed as far below the ordinary ranks of the 
social scale ; and it is not surprising that the children, on 
beholding such distinctions, express themselves in high tones 
of indignation at the arrogance of the former, and in deep- 
toned sympathy at the sufferings of the latter. 

Now, how can a child, whose ear is charmed with sweet 
sounds, and in whose soul melody is seeking for utterance, 
turn with other than " death-like " feelings, to such loathsome 
and revolting pictures, as salute his eyes in written music ? 
Would it not be the dictate of kindness, to endeavor to make 
the path of the learner more easy and pleasant, by allowing 
him to read whole measures, or whole tunes, before learning 
the notes of which they are composed? But whether the 
child, after all, in reading whole words or whole tunes, will 
entirely escape from these " ghostly apparitions," we will 
leave for others to decide. 

5th. — As a final consideration, by way of restriction, let it 
be suggested, that the mere promotion of a child's pleasure 
should never form the basis of any system of education. 

If such considerations, as making the path of the learner 
pleasant and easy, have not formed the basis of the new 
system, they have, at least, had great weight in the minds of 
its defenders. 

Let the reader refer to the whole paragraph on the 16th 
page »f Mr. Mann's lecture, containing the last quotation, and 
he will see reasons for believing that a desire to promote the 



84 

pleasure of the child, lies at the foundation of the system. 
The letters of the alphabet, " bloodless, ghostly apparitions," 
should at first be omitted ; because, " having dimensions in a 
plane," merely, they are capable of affording only a small 
amount of that pleasure which arises simply from the love 
of form ; a source of pleasure which, at best, he says, 
" is the feeblest of all." Such, certainly, seems to us a nat- 
ural inference from this paragraph ; and if such a principle in- 
duces him to urge the adoption of this system, it is hoped that 
every practical teacher, and every friend of thorough instruc- 
tion, will enter against it his solemn protest. The child's 
pleasure to be consulted at the expense of order! at a sacri- 
fice of first principles, the only basis of a thorough education ! 
Nothing has been more productive of mischief, or more sub- 
versive of real happiness, than mistaking what may afford the 
child present gratification, for that which will secure for him 
lasting good. 

It would seem that the child, in his ignorance and devo- 
tion to pleasure, is allowed to judge what is best, what is 
proper; what, on the whole, will result in the greatest amount 
of good. " How," inquires Mr. Mann, " can one who, as 
yet, is utterly incapable of appreciating the remote benefits, 
which, in after-life, reward the acquisition of knowledge, 
derive any pleasure from an exercise, which presents neither 
beauty to his eye, nor music to his ear, nor sense to his 
understanding ? " And since the child cannot " appreciate 
the remote benefits " of learning the alphabet, must his 
caprice govern those who can, and determine them to aban- 
don, even for a time, what they know is all-important in 
teaching him to read ? A child is sick, and cannot appre- 
ciate the remote, or immediate benefits of taking disagreeable 
medicine. Will a judicious parent, who is fully sensible of 
the child's danger, regard, for one moment, his wishes, 
to save him from a little temporary disquietude ? A child 
has no fondness for the dry and uninteresting tables o£ arith- 
metic. Shall he, therefore, be gratified in his desire to hasten 



85 

on to the solution of questions, before acquiring such indis- 
pensable pre-requisites ? We have been accustomed to sup- 
pose that the responsibilities of the teacher's profession, 
consist, mainly, in his being required to fashion the manners 
and tastes of his pupils, to promote habits of thinking and 
patient toil, and to give direction to their desires and aspira- 
tions, rather than to minister to the gratification of their pas- 
sion for pleasure. 

If we mistake not, it was this same pleasure-promoting prin- 
ciple, that led Mr. Mann to interpret, as he did, the relation 
subsisting between the pupil and the teacher in the Prussian 
schools ; on the part of the pupil it was, says Mr. M., " that of 
affection first and then duty." Here, it seems, Mr. M. would 
have the teacher first amuse the child, so as to gain his good- will, 
at any expense, and would, then, have him attend to duty 
as a secondary matter. This is reversing the true order of the 
two. Duty should come first, and pleasure should grow out 
of the discharge of it. We wish to be distinctly understood 
on this point. The teacher ought, when compatible with duty, 
to awaken in the child, agreeable, rather than painful feelings. 
He, who delights in seeing a child in a state of grief, is unfit 
for the teacher's office. On the other hand, he, who would 
substitute pleasure for duty, or would seek to make that sweet, 
which is of itself bitter, and to make that smooth, which is 
naturally and necessarily rough, is actuated by a misguided 
philanthropy. Hence, we dislike all attempts to make easy, 
and to simplify, that which is already as easy and simple as 
the nature of the case will allow. 

The grand mistake lies in the rank assigned to pleasure. 
To gratify the child, should not be the teacher's aim, but 
rather to lay a permanent foundation, on which to rear a noble 
and well-proportioned superstructure. If, while doing this, 
the teacher is successful in rendering mental exertion agreea- 
ble, and in leading the child from one conquest to another, 
till achievement itself affords delight, it is well ; such pleasure 
stimulates to greater exertion. But if, to cultivate pleasure- 



86 

seeking is his aim, he had better, at once, abandon his profes- 
sion, and obtain an employment in which he will not endanger 
the welfare, both of individuals and society, by sending forth 
a sickly race, palsied in every limb, through idleness, and a 
vain attempt to gratify a morbid thirst for pleasure. 

But even if the promotion of pleasure were the aim of the 
teacher, the new system of teaching reading, is a most 
unfortunate mode of securing it. Pleasure, springs from an 
active, rather than a passive state of the faculties. 

The new system proposes to afford the child pleasure in 
the exercise of reading words; yet, instead of requiring him 
to exert, in the least, his mental faculties, in combining the 
elementary parts of these words, the teacher gives merely the 
result of his own mental processes, and exacts nothing 
from the child, but a passive reception of the sound, which is 
to be associated arbitrarily, with the visible picture, pointed 
out to him. 

To this, the reply will, probably, be made, that the idea, 
not the mere act of passing from the visible to the audible 
sign, affords the pleasure. Such a reply is cut off by our first 
and second restrictions. The pleasure arising from the idea, 
can be urged, with equal force, by both parties. Therefore, 
in determining to which of the two systems belongs the greater 
pleasure, no account whatever can be made of that which 
arises from the meaning of words. We submit the ques- 
tion to any candid mind, which system is adapted to afford 
the grealer amount of pleasure? We will now grant to the 
defenders of the new system, for the sake of argument, all the 
advantage which they claim, from the association of interest- 
ing ideas, with the words which convey them. All that they 
can then mean, is, that the idea throws such a charm around 
those "bloodless and ghostly apparitions" which constitute 
words, that the "death-like" feeling, with which the child 
would otherwise "face" them, is now converted into pleas- 
ure. According to the plan of teaching, already described, 
however, the familiar word is first pronounced to the child ; 



87 

the idea is then in the mind, as soon as he hears the word 
uttered. Having received the idea, and all the pleasure it 
can afford, does it seem reasonable to suppose he will interest 
himself much, with the "ill-favored" forms that represent it 
to the eye ? There is a little nut enclosed in a prickly en- 
casement. The nut itself is very agreeable to children; so 
agreeable as to induce them, at the expense of some pain, 
to try their skill in removing this unfriendly exterior. Re- 
peated trials, with the stimulus afforded by a desire to gralify 
the taste, gives them skill; till at length, they can obtain the 
nut without much suffering. Now, suppose some "humane" 
person, desirous of aiding the child in acquiring this kind of 
skill, and of making his task, at the same time, more 
pleasant, should begin by removing the troublesome covering 
with his own hands, and suffer the child to surfeit himself, 
without any effort on his part. Would he, in the first place, 
secure the object of giving the child skill? and in the second 
place, will the child, having obtained the nuts, derive much 
pleasure from handling the vacant burrs ? and, finally, does 
not pleasure itself become vitiated and morbid, when unat- 
tended with effort? This illustration, will, at least, apprize 
the reader, of our reasons for the opinion, that the new system 
is the result of a misguided effort to make that pleasant, 
which, to some extent at least, must be disagreeable ; to make 
that easy, which, from the nature of the case, is beset with 
unavoidable difficulties. 

Having fixed what seem to us, the necessary limitations 
of the question, we will now consider whatever of argument 
remains in favor of the system. 

The first consideration seems to arise from the fact that the 
child learns to utter whole sounds, the names of objects, 
without attending, in the least, to the elements which compose 
them. The following quotation from the 14th page of Mr. 
Mann's lecture, will explain what he means : " When we wish 
to give to a child the idea of a new animal, we do not present 
successively the different parts of it, — an eye, an ear, the 



88 

nose, the mouth, the body, or a leg ; but we present the whole 
animal, as one object. And this would be still more neces- 
sary, if the individual parts of the animal with which the 
child had labored long and hard to become acquainted, were 
liable to change their natures as soon as they were brought 
into juxtaposition, as almost all the letters do when com- 
bined into words." So, we are to understand that printed 
words, in like manner, should be learned as whole objects, 
though composed of elementary parts. 

So far as this argument receives any force from its refer- 
ence to the fact, that the child utters words, as whole sounds, 
we have no more to say, but would refer the reader to the 
first restriction of the question. All that remains to be con- 
sidered under this head, is that part of the argument contained 
in the last quotation, the general principle of which, seems 
to amount to this ; that whole compound objects should first 
be taught, and made use of, as if understood ; at some future 
period, the unknown elements which compose them, should 
be given, with the modes of combining them. 

According to this, in teaching Numeration, all numbers, 
like 349, 8764, 97635, &c, should be given to the child as 
single objects. It is true, Mr. Mann denies the pertinency of 
this comparison, on the 98th page of his report ; yet, it is im- 
possible for us to see how he can escape it. The comparison 
fails only in one respect. ' Some of the letters of the alphabet 
do not, with unerring certainty, guide to the proper sound, 
while the forms and places of the figures, taken together, are 
an unfailing index of their value. Now, if our alphabet 
were what we have denominated a perfect one, the forms of 
the letters could never fail to lead to the correct sound. 
With such an alphabet, the comparison would fail in no 
material point. 

But, if there is any meaning in the above quotation, Mr. 
Mann would recommend this mode of teaching words, even 
if they were written with a perfect alphabet. " Still more," 
he says, " would this be necessary if the individual parts of 



89 

the animal, with which the child has labored long and 
hard to become acquainted, were liable to change their na- 
tures as soon as they were brought into juxtaposition, as 
almost all the letters of the alphabet do, when combined 
into words ; " that is, whole words should be taught first, 
if each letter had but one sound ; " still more," a fortiori, is it 
necessary so to teach them, since such is not the fact. And 
hence, we say, if words should be taught in this way, num- 
bers, music, and every other art and science should be taught 
in the same way. If Mr. Mann still denies the aptness of 
the comparison, he makes the argument, drawn from the 
" natural order," as it is called, rest entirely on the imperfec- 
tions of the alphabet, which forms one of the distinct argu- 
ments to be considered hereafter. The only difference which 
he has pointed out, certainly comes from that source ; as any 
one will see by referring to the 98th page of the report. A 
denial, therefore, of the pertinency of this comparison, is equiv- 
alent to giving up that part of the argument now under 
consideration. If, on the other hand, he acknowledges the 
aptness of the comparison, and recommends that the decimal 
system of numeration be treated in this manner, every one 
will see, that it loses all that gives it a superiority over the 
Greek or Roman numerals. The evil which would result, 
from the extension of this principle, to other branches of 
knowledge, could not be estimated. 

Moreover, the illustration drawn from the animal, or a tree 
which is more commonly given, fails, we think, to meet all 
that is required in teaching a child to read. Grant, that he 
does not, in learning to distinguish a tree from a rock, or 
any other dissimilar object, form his idea of it, by inspect- 
ing the parts separately, and then by combining trunk, bark, 
branches, twigs, leaves, and blossoms. In learning to read, 
however, he is to distinguish between objects which resemble 
each other; and in many instances, very closely, as in the case 
of the words, hand, band; now, mow; form, from; and scores 
of others. To make the illustration good, it would be neces- 
12 



90 

sary to place the child in a forest, containing some severity 
thousand trees, made up of various genera, species, and vari- 
eties, among which were found many to be distinguished only 
by the slightest differences. Or, if it will suit the case any 
better, let him be placed in a grove, containing seven hun- 
dred trees, having, as before, strong resemblances ; if, then, 
this general survey of each of them, as a whole object, will 
enable him to distinguish them rapidly from each other, 
whatever may be their size, or the order in which he may 
cast his eyes upon them, we will acknowledge the aptness of 
the illustration. Primary school teachers, who have tried the 
system, testify, that when children have learned a word in 
one connection, they are unable to recognise it in another, 
especially if there be a change of type. 

As Mr. Mann has, virtually, denied the right of extending 
the principle of teaching a compound first, and the elements 
subsequently, to music and numeration, and, as his reasons 
for that denial are drawn from the present imperfect state of 
the alphabet, we may infer that he relies, mainly, if not solely, 
on the latter branch of the argument. 

We will, therefore, next consider the second reason urged 
in favor of the new system. It may be thus stated. ' Such is 
the imperfect condition of the alphabet, that the letters, when 
combined into words, do not, with certainty, lead the learner 
to the correct pronunciation ; whereas, by teaching words 
before letters, all this uncertainty is avoided.' 

That the alphabet is imperfect, we have already conceded. 
The nature of these imperfections, we will repeat. 1st. — A 
single character may represent several different sounds. 2d. 
— A single sound, may be represented by several different 
characters, either separate or combined. 3d. — A letter may 
be silent. These anomalies are, to children, a source of 
much perplexity and doubt. We fully appreciate the diffi- 
culties arising from them, and as heartily deplore their exist- 
ence, as can the authors of the proposed remedy. And here, 
two questions arise. The first is this ; ' Is the condition of 



91 

the alphabet a sufficient cause for any material change in the 
modes of teaching children to read ? ' And the second, ' Does 
it afford sufficient reasons for such a change as the one pro- 
posed ? ' 

In answering the first question, we are prepared to say un- 
hesitatingly, that the mode of teaching letters before words, is 
the only true and philosophical one. Letters, as we have al- 
ready shown, are elements in the formation of words. That 
the elements of an art or science should first be taught, no one 
in the least acquainted with teaching, will pretend to deny. 
To proceed from known elements to their unknown combina- 
tions, is natural and easy ; it is the only course that will ensure 
a thorough acquaintance with any subject. Hence, we say, 
no material change should take place. But in making the 
child acquainted with the letters and the modes of combining 
them, we are not sure that the best methods have always been 
adopted. A letter is not understood until its visible symbol, its 
name and its power, are associated together. It is the custom, 
in many primary schools, to teach at first, only the name and 
symbol, and to leave the power to be learned by imitation or 
inference, when the child begins to combine letters into sylla- 
bles or words. For example ; the learner readily pronounces 
the names of the letters h-i-v-e, but being ignorant of their 
powers, he hesitates ; the teacher says, pronounce ; the child 
still hesitates ; the teacher utters hive, as the combination of 
these four letters, and the child is then left to receive only a 
.twilight conception of the powers of those letters. The Prus- 
sian method, it appears, consists in presenting the symbol and 
the power, leaving the name to be learned afterwards. This 
method has the advantage of bringing the powers of the let- 
ters, at an early period, to the notice of the child, in a manner 
so distinct and vivid, as to impress them indelibly upon his 
memory ; and must give him great facility in the process of 
mental combination. The omission of the name, however, 
lies at the root of oral spelling, and endangers the acquisition 
of that important branch. 



92 

A third method, and one which will, we think, commend 
itself to the favorable regard of all who examine it, is that in 
which the three attributes of a letter are at once associated 
together. The advantages of this method, and the modes of 
interesting children in it, are topics which will be more fully 
discussed in another place. While we deny, therefore, that 
any material change should take place, we cheerfully admit, 
that some such improvements as named above may be made 
in the manner of teaching the letters. 

The second question is, ' Do the imperfections of the al- 
phabet afford sufficient reasons for such a change as the one 
proposed ? ' We have already said, that no material change, 
in our opinion, should take place. But others think differ, 
ently, and have proceeded both to devise, and strongly recom- 
mend, the plan under consideration. To this method of 
teaching we are opposed, for the following reasons : 

1st. — Teaching whole words according to the new plan, to 
any extent whatever, gives the child no facility for learning 
new ones. Every word must be taken upon authority, until 
the alphabet is learned. 

2d. — Since the alphabet must, at some period, be acquired, 
with all its imperfections, it is but a poor relief, to compel the 
child, at first, to associate seven hundred different, arbitrary 
forms with the ideas which they represent, and then to learn 
the alphabet itself. 

Mr. Mann was sensible of this objection to his new theory, 
when he said, in his second annual report, (Common School 
Journal, Vol. I. page 327,) 

" There is a fact, however, which may, perhaps, in part, cancel 
the differences, here pointed out. The alphabet must be learned, 
at some time, because there are various occasions, besides those of 
consulting dictionaries or cyclopaedias, where the regular sequence 
of the letters must be known ; and possibly it may be thought, that 
it will be as difficult to learn the letters, after learning the words, as 
before. But the fact, which deprives this consideration of some 
part at least of its validity, is, that it always greatly facilitates an 
acquisition of the names of objects, or persons, to have been con- 
versant with their forms and appearances beforehand. The learning 
of words is an introduction to an acquaintance with the letters com- 
posing them." 



93 

To learn to associate readily the form of a word with its 
meaning, is as difficult a task, for aught we can see, as it 
would be to associate the form and name of a letter with its 
power. It will be said that the former exercise affords the 
learner pleasure, and therefore attracts his attention and in- 
terests him. We have already expressed our sentiments on 
the policy of consulting the pleasure of a child, at the expense 
of his real good. If it can be shown, however, that, of two 
methods equally good in other respects, one has the addi- 
tional recommendation of pleasing the child, and the other has 
not, we should, by all means, choose the former. But all 
these remarks about the pleasure resulting from the new mode 
of teaching, grow out of the supposition, that learning the 
alphabet is totally destitute of interest. 

This impression is not correct. And it is somewhat sur- 
prising, that the defenders of the new system do not see, when 
speaking of the alphabet, as destitute of interest, that a striking 
analogy exists between the power of a letter and its visible 
symbol, on the one hand, and the meaning of a word and its 
symbol, on the other. 

That children are constantly uttering the elementary sounds 
of the language, before learning the letters, is obvious to every 
one. They must have some knowledge of them. So says 
Mr. Mann, on page 93 of the report : " Generally speaking, too, 
before a child begins to learn his letters, he is already acquaint- 
ed with the majority of elementary sounds in the language, 
and is in the daily habit of using them in conversation." It 
may be said of a letter, then, with as much propriety as of a 
word, that it is " familiar to the**ear, the tongue, and the mind." 
The eye is not acquainted with the visible symbol. If, then, 
such old acquaintances can introduce the child to the stranger 
(the visible representative) in one case, why not in the other ? 
If the one exercise affords pleasure, why not the other? The 
latter may not to the same extent, as the former. We 
have made these comparisons for the benefit of those who 
insist so much on pleasing children. 



94 

But in interesting children, much depends upon the modes 
of teaching. It is not necessary to teach the alphabet invaria- 
bly from the vertical column. Letters may be made upon the 
black-board ; and the children may be allowed to make them 
on the slate, or on the board. Again, the teacher may be sup- 
plied with small pieces of card, each containing a letter ; or, 
with metallic letters, which may be handled. Let these be 
kept in a small box or basket, and when a class is called upon 
to recite, let theteacher hold up one of these letters. One of 
the class utters its name ; let him then be required to utter its 
power also. The same should afterwards be exacted of the 
whole class, in concert. The teacher should then give the 
letter to the successful pupil. Let this exercise be repeated 
till all the letters are distributed. The pupils now, one by 
one, return the letters to the teacher, who counts the number 
belonging to each, and awards praise where it belongs. Chil- 
dren may be deeply interested in exercises of this kind, and at 
the same time be laying the foundation for a thorough course 
of instruction in reading. Then, let the teacher present some 
two or three letters, so arranged, as to spell a familiar word ; 
as ox, cat, dog. The pupils should be required first, to utter the 
names of the letters thus arranged ; next, their powers ; then, to 
join those powers into the audible sign which will call to mind 
the object named. 

3d. — Another objection to converting our language into Chi- 
nese, arises from the change which must inevitably take place in 
the modes of associating the printed word with the idea which 
it represents, when the child is taught to regard words as com- 
posed of elements. Children, at first, learn to recognise the 
word, by the new method, as a single picture, not as composed 
of parts ; and for aught we know, they begin in the middle of 
it and examine each way. It is not probable that they pro- 
ceed invariably from left to right, as in the old mode. How- 
ever that may be, an entire change must take place when they 
begin to learn words, as composed of letters. The attention, 
then, is directed to the parts of which words are composed. 



95 

While the eye is employed in combining the visible charac- 
ters, the mind unites the powers which they represent, and the 
organs of speech' are prompt to execute, what the eye and the 
mind have simultaneously prepared for them. The mode of 
association in a symbolic language, if we mistake not, is this : 
The single picture is associated arbitrarily, yet directly, with 
the idea; the idea is then associated with its audible sign ; this 
sign being familiar to the child, is readily uttered. In a pho- 
netic language, it is different. The attention being directed to 
the letters and their powers, the child is conducted immedi- 
ately to the audible sign ; this when uttered, or thought of, sug- 
gests the idea. Whether or not these are the correct views, is 
immaterial to the argument. All that is claimed is, that a 
change takes place in the modes of association, as soon as the 
child begins to combine letters into words. It is of this change 
we complain. All will acknowledge the importance of form- 
ing in the child, correct habits of association, such as will not 
need revolutionizing at a subsequent period in life. On this 
point, we cannot forbear quoting the excellent remarks of the 
secretary, relating to the subject of spelling. After recom- 
mending a certain natural and simple mode of classifying 
words, he proceeds to say :* " On such lessons as these, schol- 
ars will very rarely spell wrong. * They can go through the 
book twenty times while they would go through a common 
spelling-book once ; and each time will rivet the association, 
that is, it will make an ally of the almost unconquerable force 
of habit. A connection will be established between the 
general idea of the word and its component letters, which it 
will be nearly impossible to dissolve. In pursuing any study 
or art, it is of the greatest importance to have the first move- 
ments, whether of the eye, the hand, or the tongue, right. 
The end will be soonest obtained to submit to any delay that 
exactness may require. We all know with what tenacity first 
impressions retain their hold upon the mind. When in a 
strange place, if we mistake the points of compass, it is almost 

* In this quotation, the italicising is our own. 



96 

impossible to rectify the error; and it becomes a contest which 
of the two parties will hold out longest, the natural points of 
the compass, in their position, or we in our false impressions. 
So if, in geography, we get an idea that a city is on the west 
bank of a river, when it is on the east, it is almost as practica- 
ble to transfer the city itself, bodily, to the side of the river 
where it seems to belong, as it is to unclench our own impres- 
sions, and make them conform to its true location. These 
illustrations might be multiplied indefinitely." It seems to 
us that, as one of these illustrations, the subject under consid- 
eration must be legitimately ranked. 

4th. — The new system fails to accomplish the object which 
it proposes. The main design of this mode of teaching seems 
to be, to escape the ambiguity arising from the variety of sounds 
which attach to some of the letters, as well as from the variety 
of forms by which the same sounds may be represented. 

The defenders of this system seem to forget, since these 
anomalies are elementary, that they must be carried into the 
formation of words. Thus, we can represent a single elemen- 
tary sound, first by a, then by ai, and again, by ei; hence, we 
can form three different words ; as vane, vain, vein. In a simi- 
lar manner we have, rain, reign, rein; ivright, write, right, rite; 
and hundreds of others. If will be seen at once, that it must 
be as difficult for a child to attach the same sound to four differ- 
ent pictures called words, as to four different pictures called 
letters. Hence, it is plain, that we have " harlequins" among 
words ; as well as among letters. The only difference is, that 
the former are more numerous, yet the legitimate offspring of 
the latter. We have " masqueraders," too, among words. Le t 
the sound represented by the four letters, r-i-t-e, fall upon the 
child's ear, and he may think, either, of a ceremony, of making 
letters with a pen, of justice, or of a workman. Again, let 
either the printed or spoken word pound, for example, be given ; 
and he may think of an enclosure for stray cattle, of striking 
a blow, of certain weights, as avoirdupois, apothecaries', or 
Troy weight, and also, of a denomination of money. To illus- 



97 

trate the difficulty arising from this equivocal word, or from 
any other one of the hundreds in the language, we will pur- 
sue a course similar to that in which Mr, Mann shows the 
child's perplexity with the letter a, on page 93 of the report. 
Pound has more than seven different meanings, if we take 
into the account all the various weights, and moneys. But 
we will suppose it to have only seven. Now, if the sentences 
in which this word occurs be equally divided among these 
seven meanings, we have only to use the words sentence, 
ivord, and idea, instead of word, letter, and sound; and the 
secretary's own language will bring us to a result as deplora- 
ble as that to which he arrives ; namely, " that he [the child] 
goes wrong six times in going right once." 

But what shall be done, since words, as well as letters, may 
become " masqueraders," and "harlequins?" Shall some en- 
thusiastic reformer, some Miss Edgeworth, come forward and 
tell us that no thorough reform can be effected, till the prac- 
tice of teaching words, before whole sentences, is abolished ; 
intimating, that at no distant period children will begin with 
whole paragraphs, and, if very small, with whole pages ? 

Thus, it would seem that the advocates of this system, in 
attempting to shun Scylla are falling upon Charybdis. But it 
will, probably, be said in reply, that the connection will aid 
the child in determining the meaning of such words. This 
we willingly grant, and at the same time, claim, what is some- 
what similar to it, in teaching the use of the letters ; namely 
that simple analogies may be pointed out to the child, which 
will aid him, not a little, in determining the correct sound to 
be given to the letters. In monosyllables ending with e mute, 
the vowel, almost without exception, is long, or like the name- 
sound. So when a syllable ends with a vow T el, especially if 
accented, that vowel is long. The vowel a, in monosylla- 
bles, ending with //, has, generally, the broad sound. A mon- 
osyllable, ending with a single consonant, contains, usually, a 
short vowel. These are only a few of the various analogies 

13 



98 

which may be pointed out, and which will enable the learner, 
in most cases, to give the correct sound. 

5th. — It introduces confusion into the different grades of 
schools. 

The elements must be taught somewhere. If neglected 
in the primary schools, they must be taught in the grammar 
schools. And thus the order of things is reversed, and disar- 
rangement introduced into the whole school system. The 
teacher who is employed, and paid, for instructing in the 
higher branches, is compelled to devote time and attention to 
the studies appropriately belonging to the schools of a lower 
grade. This is found to be the case, to too great an extent, in 
the schools of our city. "We do not say this to the disparage- 
ment of the primary school teachers, or from the belief, that 
there is a want of fidelity on their part. We believe it to be, 
in part, at least, owing to the system of teaching, or rather 
want of system, in the primary schools. The books used 
in these schools, according to the author's own account of 
them, are adapted to either system. This is equivalent to 
saying that they are adapted to neither ; for it is impossible 
to see how two methods, so entirely different from each other, 
as those under consideration, can be embraced in one series 
of books. After repeated inquiries made in many of the 
primary schools of the city, we are persuaded, that the teach- 
ers have taken the full amount of license allowed them, by 
the author of the books which they use. Some begin with 
the alphabet ; others require the children to learn eight or ten 
Avords, from which they teach the several letters, though not in 
the order in which they are arranged in the alphabet. Some 
carry the process of teaching words to a greater extent, yet 
require the child to learn to spell, before teaching him to 
read. Others, as will appear, teach the children to read, 
without making them at all acquainted with the letters. One 
evil, resulting from this want of system, is a great neglect of 
spelling. It is the opinion of those masters who have been 
longest in the service, and can therefore compare the results 



99 

of the two systems, that in respect to spelling, among the 
candidates for admission from the primary schools, there has 
been a great deterioration during the trial of the new system ; 
a period of about six years. The following instance, which 
occurred a few weeks since, though perhaps, an extreme case, 
well illustrates a large class of cases, in which there is a 
deplorable neglect of spelling. A girl in her tenth year, 
presented herself for admission into one of the grammar 
schools, with a certificate of qualification from the district 
committee. The master gave her to read, the sentence be- 
ginning with the words, " Now if Christ be preached," &c. 
The third word, she called " Jesus," and persisted in saying 
it was so pronounced. She was requested to spell it ; the 
master, at the same time, pointing out the first letter. This 
letter, she called " Jesus." The first letter of the alphabet 
was pointed out; the pupil uttered "and"; the second letter 
was shown her ; " but," was her response. The letter m, she 
called " man." She was sent to the assistant teachers of the 
school, who found her totally ignorant of the alphabet. The 
master sent her back to the primary school, with her certifi- 
cate endorsed, " not qualified ; can be admitted only by the 
authority of the sub-committee of the grammar school." 

And, here we may remark, that the testimony of able pri- 
mary school teachers themselves, who have tried both sys- 
tems, is adverse to this mode of teaching reading. They 
declare that in the end, nothing is gained, but much is lost ; 
that the task of teaching the alphabet, and the art of combin- 
ing letters into words, are more difficult, and less satisfactory, 
than if the child had begun with the letters. 

6th. — It cherishes and perpetuates a defective enunciation. 

Children so universally come to the school-room, especially 
from uneducated families, with habits of incorrect articula- 
tion, that the efforts of the teacher, at an early period, should 
be directed towards the correction of these habits. The only 
sure way to accomplish this, is to drill the pupils on the 
elements of sound. The errors in enunciation consist, chiefly, 



100 

in giving either an incorrect sound to, in suppressing, or in 
mingling, the vocal elements. A forcible enunciation of these 
elements, separately, will direct the attention of the child to, 
and correct, those which are uttered improperly; will bring out 
those which have been omitted, or too feebly expressed, and will 
tend to keep separate those, which, from early habit, have been 
blended together. Nor is this all. Reading may be divided 
into two departments, which may be called the mechanical 
and the intellectual. The latter embraces all the higher ex- 
cellences of reading ; such as emphasis, inflection, pauses, and 
what is comprehended in the term expression. To prepare 
the pupil for this department of reading, it is of paramount 
importance, that all which is embraced in the former, should 
first be carefully taught. In this discussion, we are con- 
cerned especially with the mechanical part of reading. It 
includes two particulars ; first, a skilful use of the tools em- 
ployed in Ihe art, that is, the ability of uttering with fluency 
the sounds of the words, while the eye passes rapidly over 
the letters which represent them ; and, secondly, such a 
thorough training of the organs of speech, as will enable the 
pupil to give those sounds with clearness and force. By the 
new system, neither of these particulars can, to any great 
extent, be attended to ; for they both involve a knowledge of 
the elements. To be able to utter the elements forcibly, when 
taken either separately, or combined, is not unlike the acquire- 
ment of skill on an instrument of music. That a performer 
can pass over rapid and difficult passages with ease and 
gracefulness, is the surest proof that he has been thoroughly 
drilled, on every note of those passages. He did not acquire 
them all in a mass, as a whole ; and that by some fortunate 
movement of the fingers which cost him no effort. Such skill 
must have been the result of patient toil, which was but 
gradually rewarded with success. What if one desiring to 
become a skilful player upon the piano-forte, yet impatient 
to play a tune, because more agreeable, should, at first, omit 
the lessons for practice, and place the fingers upon the keys, 



101 

regardless of order, or the rules contained in the " Book of 
Instructions?" The bad habits, thus acquired, might last him 
through life, and ever prove an obstacle to his success. But 
what would be thought of a professor of music, who should 
allow of such a disorderly beginning ? Still more, of one who 
should recommend it, and affirm that no thorough reform 
could be effected without it? A defect in the enunciation of 
the elements, is a radical one, and the new system is directly 
calculated to perpetuate it. If there was no other argument 
against the system, this, of itself, would be sufficient to show 
its utter futility. 

The third and last argument for the system, in the words of 
the secretary, is, that " the rapidity of acquisition will be 
greater, if words are taught before letters." This is a ques- 
tion of fact. It either is so, or it is not so ; and facts alone, 
can sustain the position which Mr. Mann here assumes. If 
he could have adduced facts to sustain the assertion, and then 
have said, I know, instead of saying, as he does on the 92d 
page of the report, " I believe that if two children, of equal 
quickness and capacity, are taken, one of whom can name 
every letter of the alphabet, at sight, and the other does not 
know them from Chinese characters, the latter can be most 
easily taught to read," such facts would have done much 
towards effecting the desired change in the State. But where 
are the facts ? We have seen none. It is true, the secretary 
does allude, in his second annual report, to the introduction 
of the system into the Boston primary schools, and says, " it 
is found to succeed better than the old mode." Here, let the 
reader first inquire, What is the system in the Boston schools ? 
Is it precisely the one which Mr. Mann recommends ? And in 
the second place, What is the opinion of practical teachers con- 
cerning the results of the nearest approaches to this system, as 
seen in the Boston schools for the last five or six years ? And 
thirdly, let the reader be informed that " The Mother's Primer" 
which begins with words, was introduced, as appears from the 
vote of the Boston Primary School Committee, Nov. 7, 1837, 



102 

and that the second annual report of the Secretary of the Board 
of Education, bears date Dec. 26, 1838, leaving an interval of 
about one year only, for the trial of the new system. Whether 
a trial during so short a period, amidst the novelty always 
attending a change, is sufficient to warrant the assertion that 
" it is found to succeed better than the old mode," we will 
submit to the judgment of any candid mind. 

It is supposed, that the secretary, when he affirms that " the 
rapidity of acquisition will be greater, if words are taught 
before letters," intends to include the acquisition of the alpha- 
bet, with the modes of combining letters into words ; other- 
wise the whole matter is unworthy of the attention of the 
friends of education. Such being the case, the question 
stands thus. Two children, in like circumstances, in every 
respect, commence learning to read ; the first learns some 
seven hundred different words, as he would so many different 
letters ; having acquired no more ability to learn the seven 
hundred and first, than he had at the beginning ; afterwards 
he learns the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, including all 
the " harlequins " and " masqueraders," and finally the art of 
combining the letters into words. The other learns first, the 
letters; then, the art of combining them; and finally makes use 
of this knowledge, to acquire his seven hundred words. Now 
by what rule of arithmetic, or of common sense, it is ascer- 
tained that the former will advance more rapidly than the 
latter, is to us entirely unknown. 

Such are the reasons that have compelled us to dissent from 
the opinions of the secretary, on this branch of education. 
The main question at issue, we are constrained to answer in 
the negative ; because such a change, as that proposed by Mr. 
Mann and others, is neither called for, nor sustained by sound 
reasoning. The arguments adduced in its support are, as 
we believe, inconclusive. The plausibility of some, arises 
from considerations wholly irrelevant ; others are fallacious ; 
and others still, are based upon false premises. 

On the contrary, the reasons brought against the change, 



103 

and in favor of the prevailing system, are of paramount im- 
portance. Therefore, as conscientious and faithful servants in 
the cause of education, we feel bound to adhere to the path of 
duty, rather than yield to the opinions even of those who are 
high in authority. 



SCHOOL DISCIPLINE. 



In remarking upon those parts of Mr. Mann's report, which 
relate to school discipline, we shall attempt to show, that 
having, in the commencement of his career, in behalf of 
common schools, set out with the notion, that appeals to the 
baser motives, can gradually be refined out of use, he has 
steadily kept that idea before his mind ; always granting the 
right, and the rare necessity of using corporal punishment, " in 
the present state of society," and with the present corps of teach- 
ers, but confidently expecting and ever predicting, as being 
near at hand, the day of its total disuse; that by such a course, 
he has been able to keep alive in the public mind, to some 
extent, the belief that it may gradually disappear, as the sci- 
ence of teaching advances ; and that at length, in his last report 
especially, he seems, upon cursory examination, to present the 
practical fruits and realization of this long-cherished notion, 
by exhibiting the results of experience in certain schools 
which he has visited abroad. 

Two classes of these schools, we think, cannot properly be 
compared with our common schools. The first, embracing 
those which we shall denominate sanative schools, because 
they are designed for the benefit of those individuals who are, 
in some way, disabled or diseased, either physically, men- 
tally, or morally ; the second, embracing foreign schools, 
especially the Prussian, in which the school authority and 
officers are wholly governmental, and independent of the 
people ; while in this country, they are, and, by the spirit of 
our institutions, must be, almost as directly, in the hands of 



104 

the people. We shall admit that, in the first class of schools, 
kindness is the appropriate, and should be the almost exclu- 
sive means of influence. And we shall admit, in regard to 
the second class, that awe for the strong arm of a government 
beyond the control of the people, may enable judicious and 
accomplished teachers to avoid, in a great measure, the 
necessity of an actual appeal to force. 

A third class of schools to which reference has sometimes 
been made, though not in the report now under examination, 
is the model schools connected with the Normal schools. 
We shall argue that their results are unsatisfactory, being the 
results of moral experiments, made under limited and con- 
trolled, not to say, selected circumstances ; and shall venture 
to advance the opinion, without meaning to imply any bad 
faith, or want of sound sense in the experimenters, that they 
are, from the nature of the case, in great danger of mistaking 
particular cases for general rules, and supposing a theory 
established, when it has been but partially tested ; so prone 
are we, in moral subjects, to suffer our wishes to guide our 
belief. 

After having disposed of those cases which are set forth as 
most forcibly illustrating the strength of unaided love, or, as 
Mr. Mann expresses it, " the all but omnipotent power of 
generosity and affection," in supporting law and order, we 
shall attempt to show that all school order, like that of the 
family and of society, must be established upon the basis of 
acknowledged authority, as a starting-point; and shall en- 
deavor to maintain, not only the right, but the duty to 
enforce it, by an appeal to the most appropriate motives, 
that a true heart and sound mind may select, among all 
those which God has implanted in our nature ; preferring 
always, the higher to the lower ; but rejecting none, which 
circumstances may render fitting ; not even the fear of phys- 
ical pain ; for we believe that that, low as it is, will have its 
place, its proper sphere of influence, not for a limited period 
merely, till teachers become better qualified, and society more 



105 

morally refined, but while men and children continue to be 
human ; that is, so long as schools and schoolmasters and 
government and laws are needed. 

Our first position, then, we think, will readily be admitted 
by all, who have examined the subject carefully ; namely, 
that, notwithstanding Mr. Mann's opinion in support of the 
doctrine of corporal punishment, his avowal of which we 
claim, his seventh annual report, no less than the general tenor 
of his Common School Journal, is calculated, on the whole, 
to beget in the mind of the reader, a total distrust in its effi- 
cacy, under any, and all circumstances. He brings out into 
the strongest light, all cases of its extravagant abuse, and, for 
contrast, gives the most prominent relief to those successful 
results which have been obtained entirely without it ; thus 
instituting forced comparisons, which strike the mind more 
by their effect of contrast, than by their just and apposite 
analogies. 

True, when he assumes the unwonted style of grave argu- 
ment, he does indeed admit the necessity of a very rare resort 
to it in extreme cases ; but even this bare admission, he makes 
with an ill-concealed reluctance, and seems to regard such 
necessity, not as inherent in the nature of things, but only as 
a temporary evil ; he speaks of corporal punishment, as " a 
relic of barbarism," fast disappearing, and tolerated any longer 
upon the list of means, rather because teachers are incompe- 
tent, than because pupils are incorrigible. Thus the whole 
force of his rhetoric is aimed to bring, not merely the abuse of 
the rod, but its legitimate use, into disrepute ; to give false im- 
pressions of its real value, as a means of discipline ; and, 
without unequivocally assuming to exclude it, to cast reproach 
and odium upon all those who openly resort to it, or profess 
any faith in its good effects. 

We shall here present, as the ground of what we have 

advanced in regard to Mr. Mann's position, some extracts 

from the Common School Journal, embodying his own 

opinions, and, as introductory to, or explanatory of these, we 

14 



106 

shall of necessity present a few, embodying the opinions of 
others. 

A writer over the signature P. C, addressing himself " to 
females purposing to become teachers," holds the following 
language. 

" Teachers have greatly degraded their office, by consenting to 
turn flagellators for the parish. It is a degrading, hateful office. 
As you would respect the character of teacher, have nothing to do 
with it ; " — " dismiss the refractory boy ; " — " there is great objec- 
tion to turning boys into the street ; " — " but there is greater, in my 
opinion, either to retaining them in school to the injury of others, or 
to keeping them in subjection by the terror of the rod. The rod 
poisons the very atmosphere of the schoolroom, and creates more 
moral evil than can accrue from turning out a single pupil." — Com- 
mon School Journal, Vol. III. p. 153. 

The editor, after saying that, were the use of corporal pun- 
ishment abolished, " greater curses would come in to supply 
its place, and that instead of the one devil of the rod, which is 
cast out, we should have the seven devils of anarchy, hasten- 
ing in to take its place," remarks, 

" Nor are we able to discover any principle or precept, that 
would prohibit the use of punishment, in school, which, if carried -out 
to its legitimate consequences, would not also prohibit it, in society. 
Indeed, this is the abyss of folly into which the thorough and con- 
sistent non-resistants blindly plunge." — Ibid. p. 154. 

Here is a distinct avowal of the doctrine of physical punish- 
ment, accompanied by an unanswerable argument in favor of 
it ; an argument founded upon the palpable absurdity to 
which its denial would lead. This is all very well ; the doc- 
trine is admitted and defended. But, as introductory to the 
above, he says, 

"We are willing to concede to our friend, that the use of the rod, 
in school, is twice cursed, — cursing him that gives, and him that 
takes, — nay three times cursed, if he pleases, for it often leads the 
inflictor and sufferer to curse each other." — Ibid. 

Thus, in the preface to his argument, the practical applica- 
tion of the very doctrine he defends, is crippled with more 
than double cursing. 



107 

Take another illustration of the same idea. The Committee 
on Education, in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 
appointed to consider the expediency of a law by which 
school teachers shall have power to dismiss scholars from our 
town schools, for bad behavior, in their report say, 

" Though your committee think that this power is already pos- 
sessed, they think at the same time, that it ought to be sparingly 
used ; for those who are excluded from the privileges of a school 
under its operation, are almost always such as most need them. A 
wholesome discipline ought to be maintained ; and such measures 
ought to be carried into effect, if possible, as would extend the 
benefits of a school to all within its territorial limits. Legislation 
cannot provide against all the evils that may chance to disturb a 
public school, any more that it can reach all the troubles of an ill- 
governed family." — Ibid, Vol. III. pp. 65, 66. 

The editor, after cordially concurring in the opinion of the 
committee, remarks, 

" The candidates for expulsion will generally be turbulent, refrac- 
tory scholars ; and these are the very ones who most need a subju- 
gation to authority. If they defy the control of the teacher and 
committee, when young, will they not bid defiance to society, and 
the laws of the land, when old ? Suppose only one school in ten, 
among all the schools in the State, should expel a scholar for muti- 
nous conduct, or general bad behavior ; this would form a body of 
more than three hundred expelled scholars ; or rather an army of 
more than three hundred picked men, to carry on a guerilla warfare 
against all the interests of society." 

" The family, in the first instance, is the place where the bad 
passions of children are to be brought into subjection. If not done 
there, it becomes so much the more important that it should be done 
in the school." — " We abhor corporal punishment, but we abhor the 
halter and the State prison more ; and, in the present state of society, 
it is our belief, that if the first be not sometimes used, the last must 
be."— Ibid, Vol. III. pp. 66, 67. 

Here again, is an excellent and conclusive argument ; and 
had the matter been left thus, it would have been well settled. 
But, in immediate connection, as if alarmed lest the force of 
his own reasoning might prove fatal to his long-cherished 
faith in the sufficiency of unaided love, he introduces the 
usual accompanying safeguard and corrective to his argu- 



108 

ment. With the decision of the Committee, in which he has 
just concurred, and with his own admission even, " that if 
corporal punishment be not sometimes used, the halter and 
the State prison must be," fresh in his mind, he yet adds, 

" The great desideratum is, to find teachers who can manage and 
govern a school, without resorting to physical force ; if this is not 
done, or cannot be done, then the next step is to prepare such teach- 
ers, as fast as time will allow. But in the interim, the schools must 
be continued." " We hold, therefore, that although cor- 
poral punishment is a great evil, — and almost a shame to all parties 
concerned in it, — yet that it is not the greatest of evils." — Ibid, p. 67. 

Shame properly attaches to the guilty offender, not to the 
inflicter of punishment, whose only legitimate object is, to 
deter from guilty offending in future. We cannot refrain 
from saying, in this connection, though it be thought " almost" 
or even quite " a shame" for teachers to strive, by a whole- 
some application of the rod in youth, to save their pupils 
from the dungeon and the halter in maturer life, may the 
day be distant, when New England teachers, forgetting the 
stern virtue, and inflexible justice, and scorn-despising firm- 
ness of the Puritan founders of our free schools, shall be 
ashamed to incur such a false-called shame as this. May 
their firmness of principle be commensurate, at least, with 
their sensitiveness to reproach ; so that, however much they 
may suffer in their feelings, from the contemptuous sarcasm of 
those who denounce them as brutes and barbarians, they may 
yet stifle feeling, and, listening rather to the dictates of con- 
science and duty, be guided more by the fixed principles of a 
true scriptural philosophy, than by the changeful notions of 
fluctuating experimentalism. 

But, to return to our subject. There stands the doctrine, 
again well argued and maintained, unmoved and unmova- 
ble ; and there too, stands the practice, disgraced and de- 
graded, signalizing its followers, in the Hon. Secretary's 
opinion, as the rear guard of retreating barbarism, and 
sinking them to the level of brutes. Who, that thinks closely, 
needs be told the tendency of all this? And yet, to the 



109 

cursory reader, it is not so apparent. It is gravely hinted, at 
least, that though, for the present, such violent measures must 
be tolerated, for the want of teachers sufficiently skilful and 
refined to do without them, yet the time is at hand, when ihe 
search for those who can discipline their pupils entirely 
without the rod, will not be in vain. " In the interim, the 
schools must be continued." That is, the present incum- 
bents, whose minds are dark, must be allowed to compromit 
their dignity and honor, and bring shame upon themselves, 
by what their vilifiers are pleased to call a needless appeal 
to base and unworthy motives ; but their reign of terror is to 
last, only till their more worthy successors shall be ripe and 
ready for their places. 

The preceding extracts are from the Common School 
Journal, and exhibit the Hon. Secretary in the twofold rela- 
tion of a defender of the doctrine of physical coercion, and 
an opposer of its practical application. Hereafter, we shall 
quote from his seventh annual report, where we may look in 
vain, for any sympathy or support for either. 

" I have seen countries, in whose schools all forms of corporal 
punishment were used without stint or measure ; and I have visited 
one nation, in whose excellent and well-ordered schools, scarcely a 
blow has been struck for more than a quarter of a century. On 
reflection, it seems to me that it would be most strange if, from all 
this variety" — "of the discipline of violence and of moral means, 
many beneficial hints for our warning or our imitation, could not be 
derived." — Seventh Annual Report, p. 20. 

" On reviewing a period of six weeks, spent in visiting schools in 
the north and middle of Prussia and Saxony, I call to mind three 
things, about which I cannot be mistaken." 

Of these, the third, which is the only one pertinent to our 
present purpose, is thus stated ; 

"Though I saw hundreds of schools, and thousands, — I think I 
may say, within bounds, tens of thousands of pupils, — / never saw 
one child undergoing punishment, or arraigned for misconduct. I 
never saw one child in tears from having been punished, or from 
fear of being punished." — Ibid, pp. 132, 133. 



110 

We readily concede that, for reasons which will hereafter 
be considered, the occasions for using blows, or even harsh 
words, in the schools here referred to, may be rare. But our 
judgment, in regard to the degree of severity resorted to, in 
these schools, compared with that exercised in our own, might 
be better founded, if the Hon. Secretary had informed us, in 
how many instances he has witnessed biotas, and angry 
words, and tears, " during the time he has spent in visiting 
schools " in this country. But the disuse, or even the infre- 
quency of the punishment, cannot safely be inferred from the 
fact, that no evidence of its occurrence was presented to a 
distinguished visitor. It is the opinion of the best judges, 
that punishments should generally be administered in private. 
Teachers therefore do not make an exhibition of them. To 
do so, would be unpleasant to themselves, unkind to their 
pupils, and discourteous to their visitors. Should the Prus- 
sian Minister of Public Instruction see fit to honor the 
schools of this country, with a visit, we presume he would 
not be shocked with a single exhibition of cruelty or anger. 
The teachers, we doubt not, would find other means of enter- 
taining him. And even if some thoughtless pupil should 
need a word of caution, it might effectually be given, without 
appearing to a stranger, and especially to a foreigner, as an 
angry word. The mildest terms may portend dire conse- 
quences to the disobedient. 

Again, speaking of the Prussian teacher, the secretary re- 
marks, 

" The zeal of the teacher enkindles the scholars. He charges 
them with his own electricity to the point of explosion. Such a 
teacher has no idle, mischievous, whispering children around him, 
nor any occasion for the rod. He does not make desolation of all 
the active and playful impulses of childhood, and call it peace ; nor, 
to secure stillness among his scholars, does he find it necessary to 
ride them with the nightmare of fear." — Ibid, p. 135. 

" The third circumstance I mentioned above, was the beautiful 
relation of harmony and affection, which subsisted between teacher 
and pupils. I cannot say that the extraordinary fact I have men- 
tioned, was not the result of chance or accident. Of the probability 



Ill 

of that, others must judge. I can only say that, during all the time 
mentioned, I never saw a blow struck, I never heard a sharp rebuke 
given, I never saw a child in tears, nor arraigned at the teacher's bar 
for any alleged misconduct. On the contrary, the relation seemed 
to be one of duty first, and then affection, on the part of the teacher, 
— of affection first, and then duty, on the part of the scholar." — 
Ibid, p. 137. 

We like the structure and antithesis of that last sentence 
very well ; but shall have occasion hereafter, to object to the 
final clause, as containing an unsound theory. But further, 

"I heard no child ridiculed, sneered at, or scolded,[for making a 
mistake." — Ibid. 

"No child was disconcerted, disabled, or bereft of his senses, 
through fear." — Ibid. 

" What person worthy of being called by the name, or of sustain- 
ing the sacred relation of a parent, would not give anything, bear 
anything, sacrifice anything, to have his children, during eight or ten 
years of the period of their childhood, surrounded by circumstances, 
and breathed upon by sweet and humanizing influences, like these ! 

" I mean no disparagement of our own teachers, by the remark I 
am about to make. As a general fact, these teachers are as good as 
public opinion has demanded ; as good as the public sentiment has 
been disposed to appreciate ; as good as public liberality has been 
ready to reward ; as good as the preliminary measures taken to 
qualify them would authorize us to expect. But it was impossible to 
put down the questionings of my own mind, — whether a visiter could 
spend six weeks in our own schools, without ever hearing an angry 
word spoken, or seeing a blow struck, or witnessing the flow of 
tears." — Ibid, p. 138. 

How grateful should our brethren of the rod and ferule be, 
for the generous admission, that they have done as well as 
they knew how, and as well even as a benighted public 
opinion would warrant ; and, as they retire into merited 
banishment to give place to persons possessing those higher 
qualifications, which an enlightened public sentiment and an 
enlarged public liberality are to bring into requisition, it will 
be some reward for their unblessed efforts, to call to mind the 
gentle admonitions, the courteous advice, the kind instructions, 
the encouraging aid, the respectful language, they have re- 
cieved, from those who have led on the reform, and swept 



112 

away their dynasty of misrule. Can we ever forget the soft 
reprovings, by which these reformers have so often tried to 
win us from the error of our ways ? But enough of irony, if 
we may be pardoned for indulging in it even once. 

A few more extracts, to give the subject a full hearing. 

" In Holland, corporal punishment is obsolete. Several teachers 
and school-officers told me, there was a law prohibiting it in all cases. 
Others thought it was only a universal practice founded on a univer- 
sal public opinion. The absence of the Minister of Public Instruction, 
when I was at the Hague, prevented my obtaining exact information 
on this interesting point. But whatever was the cause, corporal 
punishment was not used. In cases of incorrigibleness, expulsion 
from school was the remedy. 

" One of the school magistrates of Amsterdam, told me, that, last 
year, about five thousand children were taught in the free schools of 
that city. Of this number, from forty to fifty were expelled for bad 
conduct. This would be about one per cent." — Ibid, p. 160. 

" The schools of Holland were remarkable for good order, — 
among the very best, certainly, which I have any where seen." — 
Ibid, p. 161. 

We should think that an expulsion of one scholar in a 
hundred, might establish tolerable order amongst the remain- 
ing ninety-nine. This ratio of expulsion, would give, in the 
city of Boston, about seventy-five outcasts annually. A 
noble return it would be, for her munificent expenditure of 
over two hundred thousands of dollars in public instruction, 
to cast back upon her hands, unimproved, those very subjects, 
the neglect of whose proper training, must inevitably endan- 
ger the welfare of her citizens, and the safety of their property. 
The community have a right to expect that the pupils of the 
public schools shall be really taught and governed within 
them ; and even the capital which is taxed for the support of 
these schools, may justly claim that they inculcate in all the 
young, and especially in those who are most exclusively 
dependent upon them for instruction, and who most need it, 
that respect for law, and order, and the rights of property, 
which, more than any thing else, gives permanent value to 
wealth. The public schools then, especially, are forbidden, by 



113 

the true spirit not only of moral, but of civil and mercantile 
law, to turn back their worst materials, unwrought, upon 
society. 

"In England, as there is no National system, nor any authoritative 
or prevalent public opinion towards which individual practice natu- 
rally gravitates, a great diversity prevails on this head. In some 
schools, talent and accomplishment have wholly superseded corporal 
punishment ; in others, it is the all-in-all of the teacher's power, 
whether for order or for study. I was standing one day, in conversa- 
tion with an assistant teacher, in a school consisting of many hundred 
children, when, observing that he held in his hand a lash or cord of 
Indian rubber, knotted towards the end, I asked him its use. Instead 
of answering my question in words, he turned round to a little girl,— - 
sitting near by, perfectly quiet, with her arms, which were bare, folded 
before her and lying upon her desk, — and struck such a blow upon 
one of them as raised a great red wale or stripe almost from elbow 
to wrist ! " — Ibid, p. 163. 

We are left in doubt as to the character of those schools In 
which " talent and accomplishment have wholly superseded 
corporal punishment ; " whether they were large or small, 
high or low, public or private. At any rate, a wanton act of 
violence like that just described, in whatever school it occurred, 
could excite no feelings but those of unmingled indignation ; 
and conclusively proved, that its author was totally unfit to be 
trusted with power; but it has the same want of pertinency as 
to the question of abolishing corporal punishment altogether, 
that any argument, drawn from the abuse of a thing, has, 
when adduced to show the necessity of its total disuse. 

"We next proceed to consider, in their bearings upon the 
general subject of school discipline, the results obtained, by 
mild treatment wholly, in certain schools which we have 
denominated sanative, because they are designed to heal and 
restore to society those who, either from the misfortune of an 
imperfect physical organization, as in the case of the blind, 
and the deaf and dumb, or from some peculiar moral or social 
debasement, privation, or disability, as in the case of the 
pupils of the " Redemption Institute," are excluded from the 
full enjoyment of its privileges. 
15 



114 

" The school of Mr. J. H. Wichern is called the ' Rauhe Haus,' 
and is situated four or five miles out of the city of Hamburg. It 
was opened for the reception of abandoned children of the very 
lowest class, — children brought up in the abodes of infamy, and 
taught, not only by example but by precept, the vices of sensuality, 
thieving and vagabondry." — Ibid, p. 73. 

No philanthropist can read, without emotions of heartfelt 
gratitude, the account given of the influences of this institu- 
tion. It is delightful to learn of the triumphs of unaided 
Christian love, when acting in its proper sphere, which is " to 
bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to ihe captives, 
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ; " but 
we err in expecting that the same agencies will produce similar 
results, under circumstances which are widely different. 

Now, whatever may be said of the needlessness of com- 
pulsory, or retributive discipline, in institutions for the blind, 
the deaf and dumb, the insane, the imprisoned for past crime, 
and in charitable institutions for relieving the wants and bet- 
tering the condition of the poor, and, in short, in all institu- 
tions for elevating those who have become depressed below 
the common level, either by misfortune or voluntary vice, it 
can have but a very partial bearing upon the question of dis- 
cipline, in our common schools. 

The very condition of the unfortunate, is one of depen- 
dence and privation. The feelings they naturally excite in 
the mind, are those allied to compassion. And, on the other 
hand, a sense of their own dependence, and of their necessary 
indebtedness to those whose faculties and freedom are unim- 
paired, naturally awakens in their minds, habitual emotions 
of gratitude. Our relation to them, is essentially one of 
sympathy with suffering; and their relation to us, one of 
grateful dependence. Surely the occasions must be rare 
indeed, for inflicting chastisement upon those, whose whole 
life, compared with that of others, may be regarded as disci- 
plinary ; they are subdued by the very condition of their 
being. 

It is to be regretted, that the Hon. Secretary could not pass 



115 

from this subject, without giving another of his characteristic 
thrusts, however far-fetched, at the crabbed and old-fashioned 
disciples of Solomon. We merely quote the passage, and 
leave it without comment. 

V Who can reflect upon this history, where we see a self-sacri- 
ficing man, by the aids of wisdom and Christian love, exorcising, as 
it were, the evil spirits from more than a hundred of the worst 
children whom a corrupted state of society has engendered ; — who 
can see this, without being reminded of some case, perhaps within 
his own personal knowledge, where a passionate, ignorant and per- 
verse teacher," — " has been put in possession of an equal number 
of fine-spirited children, and has, even in a shorter space of time, 
put an evil spirit into the bosom of them all ? "-^Ibid, p. 8L 

Though it may seem a digression, we shall here notice the 
manner, in which the Hon. Secretary has compared the Ger- 
man schools for deaf mutes, with common schools. 

** The success in teaching the deaf and dumb in Germany, and 
the means by which it is accomplished, furnish some invaluable 
hints in regard to the teaching of other children. 

" 1. In teaching these children to speak, if difficult and complicated 
sounds are given before easy and simple ones, some of the vocal 
organs will be at fault, in regard either to position or motion ; and 
if the error is continued but for a short period, false habits will be 
acquired, which it will be almost impossible for any subsequent skill 
or attention to eradicate. No uninstructed person, therefore, should 
tamper with this subject. No one should attempt to teach the deaf 
and dumb to speak who has not carefully read the best treatises upon 
the art, or witnessed the practice of a skilful master. The effect of 
false instruction in regard to the voice-producing muscles, furnishes 
a striking analogy to that false mental instruction given by incompe- 
tent parents and teachers, by which all the intellectual and moral 
fibres of a child's nature are coiled and knotted into a tangle of 
errors, from which they can never be wholly extricated even by a 
life of exertion." — Ibid, p. 34. 

Surely, " no one," we admit, " should attempt to teach 
the deaf and dumb to speak, who has not carefully read the 
best treatises upon the art." The wonder is, that they can be 
taught to speak at all. Was there ever such an artificial 
process of training ; such an extensive substitution of one 
sense for another ? Besides being able to produce articulate 



116 

sounds and modulated tones, without the faculty of hearing, 
as a guide, think of a deaf mute's reading the language of 
another, by watching with the eye the muscular movements 
of his lips, and, what is far more astonishing, even doing the 
same in the dark, by feeling those motions with his hand 
placed upon the speaker's lips ! We know not that the history 
of education furnishes such an example of the triumph of art, 
over the defects of Nature. It equals, if it does not surpass 
the triumphs of modern surgery, in furnishing new noses, 
and artificial limbs, and false palates. The educator here 
seems to take Nature into his own hands, and, therefore, 
needs to be skilful, and to proceed in precisely the right way. 
Wonderful, however, as are these results, they are by no 
means new, nor have they been thought, by many of the 
most competent judges, to possess sufficient value to repay one 
for the laborious process, by which they must be attained.* 
The deaf and dumb pupil, in learning to speak, must 

* " About ten years ago, several of the institutions of the deaf and dumb 
in Germany, were visited by the celebrated Degerando, than whom, no 
man living is more capable of forming an intelligent opinion on this 
subject, in company with one of the instructors in the Paris institution. 
Among others, they visited the school at Gruund, which, perhaps, has no 
superior in Germany. They report they gave is as follows: 'Truth com- 
pels us to say, that the success of articulation is by no means general. Of 
the thirty-three pupils, of the school at Gruund, two or three speak with 
facility and surprising neatness. About the same number are unable to 
speak intelligibly, and the great body articulate painfully, and often with 
contortions, which it is distressing to witness.' f Dr. Milnor noticed the 
same fact in England. In the latter country, it would appear, that teaching 
the deaf and dumb to speak is going out of use. The more recent insti- 
tutions prefer to direct their efforts towards making their pupils acquainted 
with the English language, the store-house of knowledge, rather than 
merely to teach them the power of articulation and reading on the lips." — 
Mercantile Journal. 

"Among other subjects of inquiry, Mr. Weld has been instructed to* 
make a very critical and thorough investigation, with regard to the extent, 
and degree of success, which attend the plan of teaching deaf-mutes to artic- 
ulate, and in return, to understand those who speak to them. Every one, the 

f Quatrieme circulairo de l'institut royal des Sourds-muets de Paris, p. 53. 



117 

receive every item of guiding from his instructor. He cannot 
proceed a single step without him ; nor can he judge of the 
success of his own efforts ; having no test in his own con- 
sciousness, by which to try his accuracy ; since he is devoid 
of the very sense of perceiving sound. 

If therefore, he is to produce definite sounds, significant of 
thought, it must be, by imitating certain muscular movements 
revealed to him through the medium of sight and feeling. 
But that these movements do produce these sounds, he neither 
knows, nor can know, of himself ; for this, he must rely en- 
tirely upon the authority of his teacher. Now, the Hon. 

least acquainted with the history of their instruction, knows that this has 
been attempted, for a long course of years past, in some parts of Europe, 
both by private teachers and at public institutions, and that greater or less 
degrees of success have been claimed to be reached, in its practical 
results, by those who have adopted it. It is equally well-known, also, that 
its introduction into the schools for deaf-mutes, as a part of the system of 
education, has been strenuously opposed by a great number of the most 
distinguished teachers, and that it is not pursued at some of the most 
prominent and successful European institutions. 

It is proper, then, to inquire, whether the amount of its practicability 
and usefulness may not be exaggerated ; whether those who adopt it are 
not naturally led to make the most of it ; and whether from the force of that 
prejudice which often attends the ardor with which a favorite object is 
pursued, they may not overlook the great sacrifices in the other depart- 
ments of the education of deaf-mutes, which the laborious and very tedious 
process of teaching a certain portion of them to articulate, and to under- 
stand those who speak to them, necessarily demands. 

Hasty conclusions ought not to be formed on a subject which, to say the 
least, has been matter of long and grave discussion among scientific 
individuals, and practical instructors in Europe, and to examine which 
thoroughly, so as to become acquainted with it in all its bearings, requires 
much practical experience in the instruction of deaf-mutes ; a full and fair 
comparison of the whole course of education, and its results, at those 
institutions where articulation is taught, and at those where it is not; and 
a vast deal more of careful scrutiny and patient investigation, than can 
possibly be employed in a few short visits at a few of such schools." — 
Twenty-eighth Report of the Directors of the American Asylum for the Deaf 
and Dumb, at Hartford. 



118 

Secretary, it seems, would have us think, that there is a 
"striking analogy" between the effect of false instruction in 
this process of teaching, and that of false mental and moral 
instruction in forming the characters of the young generally. 
Yet it seems perfectly plain that, in one case, the teacher's 
efforts do every thing by a mechanical and artificial process, 
the pupil blindly following, knowing nothing of his own 
success, except from the testimony of his teacher ; while in 
the other, that is, in imparting moral and mental culture, the 
teacher's influence may be modified by a thousand varying 
circumstances, both seen and unseen, external to the child, 
and inherent in him, over which the teacher can exercise but 
a very limited control. We can never say, in the moulding 
of character, these are our materials, and these are our circum- 
stances, and such and such will be our results. Education, 
here, with all her boasted powers, must 

"Learn to labor and to wait;" 

leaving much, in faith, for the child to work out himself, with 
fear and trembling. We have dwelt so long on this point, 
because we think, that from such seeming resemblances, the 
Hon. Secretary is prone to draw unsound conclusions him- 
self, and thus to mislead others. But we proceed to consider 
the second hint furnished by the success in teaching the deaf 
and dumb. 

" 2. After a few of the first lessons, it is ordinarily found that the 
keenest relish for knowledge is awakened in the minds of the pupils. 
They evince the greatest desire for new lessons, and a pleasure that 
seems almost ludicrously disproportionate, in the acquisition of the 
most trivial things. This arises, in the first place, from that appe- 
tite for knowledge which nature gives to all her children ; and, in 
the second place, from the teacher's arranging all subjects of instruc- 
tion in a scientific order, and giving to his pupils, from the beginning, 
distinct and luminous ideas of all he teaches. Were instruction so 
arranged and administered, in regard to other children, we might, as 
a general rule, expect similar results." — Ibid, pp. 34, 35. 

Very much, indeed, depends, for the interest and progress 



119 

of pupils, upon a judicious course of study, and proper classi- 
fication. But no skill in the arrangement and adaptation of 
instructions can insure to the teacher of a common school, 
especially in a large city, that constant, eager attention, and 
unabated thirst for knowledge, which seems to be here ex- 
pected. His pupils hold fall communion with the external 
world, independently of him. They have much knowledge 
to acquire and more amusement, from their own cursory 
observation, both by seeing and hearing ; and this facility of 
intercourse, with whatever is about them, must endanger their 
fixedness of attention to him. On the other hand, the teacher 
of the blind, and of the deaf and dumb, is eyes to the one, and 
ears to the other; of course then, they will naturally be atten- 
tive to see and hear through him ; and this they may the more 
easily do, since casual incidents cannot, from the nature of 
the case, arrest their attention. We must remember, in 
making comparisons, that circumstances alter cases. 
But the third hint has more bearing upon our subject. 

" 3. Perhaps no relation in life illustrates the necessity or the 
value of love and confidence between teacher and pupil, more 
strikingly than this. Conceive of a child placed before his teacher, 
watching every shade of muscular motion with his eye, catching the 
subtlest vibrations with his hand, and expending his whole soul in 
striving to conjecture what muscles are to be moved ; and then sup- 
pose the feeling of shame or mortification, of fear or fright, to be 
superinduced, withdrawing all attention from eye and hand, choking 
the utterance and paralyzing all the faculties ; and were the pupil to 
remain in this state till he became as old as Methuselah, he would 
never succeed in uttering even an elementary sound, — unless it 
might be that of the interjection O ! Such, though to a less extent, 
is the obstruction which fear, or contemptuous manners in a teacher, 
opposes to the progress of all children." — Ibid, p. 35. 

What a violent supposition ! Why imagine that any teacher 
might wish to superinduce fear, or shame, or mortification, 
under such circumstances, and without any possible reason 
for it? Here seems to be a gratuitous attack upon the use of 
fear and contempt and shame, as motives, where no one, 
possessing a moderate share of judgment and humanity, 



120 

would think of resorting to either. We complain of this 
disposition, to render necessary but irksome measures, more 
irksome and even odious, by thus dwelling upon and exag- 
gerating their abuses. 

We come now to consider briefly the Prussian schools. 
In contrasting the school discipline of Prussia, with that of 
our own country, we must keep in mind the difference in the 
political institutions of the two countries. In Prussia, the 
government is far removed from the control of the people ; 
here, it is almost directly in their hands. In Prussia, the 
schools are entirely regulated by the national government ; 
here, all school regulations, appointments, and emoluments, 
are decided by a body, created directly by the votes of the 
people. There, the distance and awe of Monarchy, naturally 
constrain old and young to habits of external courtesy ; here, 
republican notions of freedom and equality discourage, too 
much, perhaps, those outward expressions of respect, which 
are due from the young to superior age and attainment. A 
single extract will show the dignity and strong power of 
Prussian school authority. 

" Over all these intermediate functionaries is the Minister of Public 
Instruction. This officer is a member of the king's council. He 
takes rank with the highest officers in the government ; sits at the 
council board of the nation with the minister of state, of war, of 
finance, &c, and his honors and emoluments are equal to theirs." — 
Ibid, p. 146. 

" After a child has arrived at the legal age for attending school, — 
whether he be the child of noble or of peasant, — the only two 
absolute grounds of exemption from attendance, are sickness and 
death. The German language has a word for which we have no 
equivalent, either in language or in idea. The word is used in 
reference to children, and signifies due to the school; — that is, 
when the legal age for going to school arrives, the right of the 
school to the child's attendance attaches, just as with us, the right of 
a creditor to the payment of a note or bond attaches, on the day of 
its maturity. If a child, after having been once enrolled as a 
member of the school, absents himself from it ; or if, after arriving 
at the legal age, he is not sent there by his parents, a notice in due 
form is sent to apprize them of the delinquency. If the child is not 



121 

then forth-coming, a summons follows. The parent is cited before 
the court; and if he has no excuse and refuses compliance, the child 
is taken from him and sent to school, the father to prison." — Ibid, 
pp. 146, 147. 

" One school officer of whom I inquired, whether this enforced 
school attendance were acceptable and popular, replied, that the 
people did not know any other way, and that all the children were 
born with an innate idea of going to school." — Ibid, p. 148. 

Here is the coercive power of school law, with a ven- 
geance ! What need of paltry rod and ferule to deter a child 
from infringing rules, the violation of which may lodge his 
falher in a dungeon ! The high sheriff in our own court rooms, 
needs not the terrors of the visible birch, to keep the boys in 
order. " They '11 take you up," said a little boy to another, 
who was climbing upon a stately gate, to pluck a tempting 
flower ; and the little trespasser dropped, and scampered 
home, with the fancied tramp of the police-man, sounding in 
his startled ears ; and even the assurance of his father, scarcely 
persuaded him that he was safe. Yet perhaps the same law- 
less urchin, the next day, attempted to baffle his teacher's 
efforts to subdue him with the rod, by the astounding threat, 
" 1 1 11 tell my mother of you." So conscious are our children 
of the supremacy and potency of parental protection, and so 
little do they witness of the tyranny of law, that in scenes to 
which they are accustomed, they are not easily alarmed. 
Children are not awe-struck by the penalties of the school- 
room, as they are by those of the civil code. They are 
familiar with the teacher, and know the worst of him ; and as 
they are not to be alarmed with images of a gigantic power 
beyond the precincts of the school-room, they, whose fears 
need to be addressed at all, may fortify themselves with the 
conviction, that there is no great danger after all. They soon 
learn that powder without balls cannot hurt them ; and as 
there are no unseen and imagined terrors to awe them into 
submission, we have no alternative but to present to their 
senses, in tangible shape, the actual rod. 
16 



122 

In commenting upon the results of model schools, as affect- 
ing the general question of school discipline, we shall admit, 
that these schools, in some respects, bear a nearer resemblance 
to our common schools, than do either the Prussian, or those 
that we have denominated sanative. They are composed of 
children having full possession of their faculties, and taken 
from the people at large, promiscuously ; for we will not sup- 
pose them culled. They are American schools, and that is 
saying that they are filled with free-born pupils, who know 
not the cramping trammels of political disfranchisement and 
disability. They are maintained moreover, at the public 
expense ; and yet they have not the same relation 1o the peo- 
ple, that our common schools have. They may be said to 
resemble slightly the Prussian schools, in being supported and 
controlled by a remote power. Though they may not be 
wholly paid for from the state treasury, they are yet regulated 
by state authority, and are therefore independent of the peo- 
ple in whose immediate neighborhood they may be located. 
They are not, like the common schools, accessible, by neces- 
sity, to all within certain territorial limits. They may there- 
fore, say what you will, be more select in their character. 
They are schools of wide fame ; state institutions, visited 
from far and near, by fostering and refining influences ; novel 
schools, and therefore popular ; pointed at as the patterns for 
imitation ; model schools ; their very name is a douceur to 
vanity. We think it will be conceded, on all hands, that 
these schools are much less subject to disturbing influences, 
than schools which are obliged to receive all the children of a 
certain district, and to which such encouraging sympathies as 
we have alluded to are seldom proffered. We should there- 
fore be cautious in making their success, the measure of our 
expectations in common schools ; and in supposing them 
proper places for testing theories of general school discipline. 
We cannot safely reason from the one, to the other. 

Conclusions drawn from moral experiments must always be 
extremely unsafe ; because numberless modifying circumstan- 



123 

ces, greatly affecting the results, may not be known, much 
less defined. In physics, experiment is a sure test. Nitrogen 
and oxygen, combined in the proper proportions, form atmos- 
pheric air ; and oxygen and hydrogen, water ; you can com- 
bine your simples, and be sure of your compound ; all foreign 
substances may easily be excluded from it. But as you 
advance from mere inorganic matter to even vegetable life, 
you must count upon your results with less of certainty. Of 
two plants, apparently alike, and nurtured with equal care, 
one may flourish, the other wither and die ; and for reasons 
which you cannot explain. As you rise into animal life, the 
difficulty increases. A young student in medicine having an 
English patient laboring under a fever, allowed him chicken- 
broth, and he got well. He made a memorandum in his 
case-book, " chicken-broth cures a fever." He soon after had 
a French patient, similarly sick ; the same prescription was 
ordered, and he died. He then entered in his case-book, 
" though chicken-broth cures an Englishman in a fever, it 
kills a Frenchman." The young disciple of Galen did not 
take into view quite all of the circumstances in the case. 

As you advance still higher, from animal, to a study of 
intellectual and moral existence, mere experiment, becomes 
more and more, an unsatisfactory guide. While therefore, in 
chemistry, and natural philosophy, we may safely infer a 
general principle or rule from a limited number of facts, and 
sometimes even from a single fact, yet in the science of 
mind and ethics, it becomes us to use great caution in reason- 
ing from a part to the whole. 

Such then being the vague nature of moral reasoning, it is 
the very region for self-deception ; the region in which the soul 
is in danger of being led away from innate truth, by the be- 
wildering sophistries of misapplied logic. A man's opinions 
are a part of himself; the outward manifestation of his own 
mind ; and if he is sincere and earnest, he will love them as 
himself. Now self-love distorts the mental vision, so that 
objects seen through that medium, being divested of their true 



124 

proportions, present a false aspect. For this reason, the law 
wisely presumes that no one can be a just judge in his own 
cause. It also, without implying any venality or bad faith in 
individuals, provides that near relationship to either party, 
shall disqualify a man to sit in judgment ; and even that the 
having expressed an opinion necessarily affecting the decision 
of a case at issue, shall exclude a man from a jury. This 
precaution is dictated by a true view of the short-sighted selfish- 
ness ol human nature. It is equally philosophical to suppose, 
that any theorist is in danger of taking partial and favoring 
views of the operations of his own theories. 

It is of the last importance then, that Normal schools should 
be based upon sound principles of teaching and governing, 
and a true philosophy of the human mind. For as they may 
be engines of great good, and a means of valuable reform, 
when thus based, so they may, on the other hand, become the 
propagators and disseminators of false and subversive notions, 
when guided by the partial views of an unsound philosophy. 
He who teaches others, should be himself well taught. And 
especially should those who teach teachers, and, a fortiori, 
those who give law and expound doctrine to the teachers of 
teachers, have their minds deeply imbued with truth ; and we 
know not whence this truth is to be obtained, but from a close 
introspection of our own internal modes of being, guided 
through faith, by the Divine teachings of inspiration. Col- 
lateral aid may indeed be derived from a close and searching 
study of the elements of character, as they are developed and 
manifested in the actions of others. We think we have 
shown, however, that the last is not alone sufficient to settle 
our conclusions. 

We come now to consider the question, what is proper 
school discipline, and upon what is it based ? The funda- 
mental principles upon which it is established, are of more 
importance than the details of any method for applying those 
principles in practice. If our theory be sound, common sense, 
rendered skilful by practical experience, will suggest the 



125 

means best adapted to suit particular cases, without a descrip- 
tion of those cases, infinitely varied as they must be. But, on 
the other hand, if our theory be false, however many facts we 
may bring to its support, it must work mischief in the main. 
For the good which it seems to effect, in those instances that 
do not fairly test it, is out-balanced by the evil it occasions in 
those which do show its deficiencies. Besides, though good 
may come out of evil, we are commanded not to " do evil 
that good may come." We may indeed arrive at truth 
through error ; still it is the truth, and not the error, which is 
the vital principle of good. The idea we wish to advance is, 
that we must not forsake the guidance of an internal light, 
and infer too much from apparent results. 

A ship with no compass may keep her way secure, when 
near the shore, with beacon-lights and land-marks to guide 
her. But at sea, with trackless water around her, and dark- 
ness overhead, she is blind, without that inner light, to point 
her to the pole and designate her path. The deceitful whirl 
of external objects may make the north seem south, and east 
seem west ; but a glance at the faithful needle banishes all 
doubt and confusion, and, with adjusted helm, she in an 
instant finds her track, and onward presses to her destined 
port. Nature is the compass to guide us through the mazy 
track of training childhood up to that condition of healthy 
thoughtfulness and steady self-control, which should be the 
destined aim of education. If we leave out from our philo- 
sophy, any of the constituent elements of human nature, we 
destroy the equilibrium, and well-balanced character cannot be 
formed. We must take human nature as it is. Mr. Mann, 
after describing what we consider the abuse of emulation in 
one of the Pensions, or Boarding Schools, of Paris, says, 

" It may be said that this has a good effect, because it searches out 
the latent talent of the country, and suffers no genius to be lost 
through neglect. But here, as every where else, the great question is, 
whether the principle is right, for no craft of man can circumvent 
the laws of nature, or make a bad motive supply the place or produce 
the results of a good one." — Seventh Annual Report, p. 16'6. 



126 

Surely nothing can circumvent divinely-ordained law. We 
can neither by assertion and argument add to, nor by denial 
and objection, remove from nature, a single element. Educa- 
tion can neither create nor destroy ; but only develop and 
construct character out of what previously exists, and all the 
constituents of human nature may come in to help in the 
formation of any individual character. In truth, all real 
knowledge, and all real character, are from within. Educa- 
tion, and in that term we include all reciprocal influences 
whatever, education draws out from the individual, (as the 
primitive word educo, to draw out, implies,) whatever intrinsic 
results it produces. It is the occasion, and not the cause of 
thought. It furnishes aliment as something foreign, which 
the mind, by its own inherent energy, must digest and assimi- 
late. Its office is to strengthen by exercise and culture, that 
which is too weak, and to weaken by disuse and opposition, 
that which is too active and strong ; to subdue the lower to 
the higher principles, and to produce thus the most perfect 
and harmonious whole. We trust the pertinency of these 
remarks will appear, from the great importance which we 
have urged, of taking human nature as it really exists, rather 
than as our vain wisdom may, from partial and distorted 
views, wish to make it. If we move all mind to action by an 
appeal to one motive mainly, we distort character greatly ; if 
we appeal to a few leading motives, we distort it, though 
less ; if we adopt the principle of overlooking a single one 
even, we may, and, in many instances, unquestionably shall 
come short of the best results. Every thing is to be used as 
not abusing it. Nothing is to be despised. Emulation, alone 
or principally, for all minds, is very objectionable ; so is fear ; 
so is sympathy ; so is the pride of intellect ; or the pride of 
virtue. So are any or all of them combined, to the exclusion 
of some other principle which as really exists as any of these; 
for that one, whatever it may be, has its uses, and may 
in certain individuals be the very one which needs strength- 
ening. 



127 

The following passage from an able writer,* fully expresses 
our views on this subject. " The conclusion then to which 
we come is — that it is not a question whether emulation is to 
be admitted into schools, for it will exist there whether we 
will or no. Non scripta ; sed nata lex ; quam non didicimus, 
accepimus, legimus, verum ex natura ipsa arripuimus, hausi- 
mus, expressimus ; ad quam non docti ; sed facti ; non insti- 
tuti; sed imbuti sumus ; — that since nature has admitted its 
existence we are to allow it ; but always to apply it where 
most needed and to endeavor to combine it with higher 
principles. Finally, to direct it only to worthy objects, and 
teach it to submit to the regulations of a sagacious justice. In 
a public school, every boy has a share of reputation, which 
can be measured out to him with almost mathematic certainty; 
let him take it and therewith be content. Within these 
bounds emulation may fire the genius, {JEmulatio alit ingenia) 
without inflaming the passions or corrupting the heart." 

But upon what shall school discipline be based ? We 
answer unhesitatingly, upon authority as a starting-point. As 
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of divine wisdom, so 
is the fear of the law, the beginning of political wisdom. He 
who would command even, must first learn to obey. We 
object then, as we have said we should, to the idea, that the 
relation of a pupil to his teacher is one " of affection first, and 
then duty." We would rather reverse the terms ; and though 
this is Mr. Mann's language, we will quote his own authority 
for reversing it, where he says of the German schools, 

" Until the teacher had time to establish the relation of affection 
between himself and the new-comer into his school, until he had 
time to create that attachment which children always feel towards 
any one who, day after day, supplies them with novel and pleasing 
ideas, it was occasionally necessary to restrain and punish them." — 
Seventh Annual Report, pp. 140, 141. 

Another opinion of Mr. Mann's we are happy to quote and 
respond to. 

* Rev. Leonard Withington. Lecture on Emulation in Schools, before 
the American Institute of Instruction, in 1833. 



128 

" That there must be governors or rulers where there are commu- 
nities of men, is so self-evident a truth, that it is denied only by the 
insane. 1 ' — Ibid, p. 186. 

And that implicit obedience to rightful authority must be 
inculcated and enforced upon children, as the very germ of 
all good order in future society, no one, who thinks soundly 
and follows out principles to their necessary results, will pre- 
sume to deny. Yet, it is quite offensive now-a-days to ears 
polite, to talk of authority, and command, and injunction. 
We must persuade, and invite, and win. Respect for law is 
hardly sufficient to insure the infliction of its severer penalties. 
Thus the restraining influence of fear is ineffectual where 
most needed. Penalties, being too much dreaded by the inno- 
cent, are, for that very reason, too little dreaded by the guilty; 
who soon learn to avail themselves of the protecting shield 
that overstrained mercy casts before them. 

The present is an age remarkable for the ascendency of sym- 
pathy over the sterner virtues. Kindness, powerful, overwhelm- 
ing in its proper sphere, has assumed a false position ; has 
stepped beyond the limits of ils legitimate control, and, having 
wrought such mighty magic with human misery and guilt 
through the benevolent labors of Howard, Fry, Dix, and a host 
of others less widely known but equally deserving, seems almost 
ready to be crowned the omnipotent regenerator of the race, 
to purge the heart from sin and sanctify it unto holiness. But, 
in our admiration of the efficacy of one agent, we must not 
despise or overlook the value of others. Kindness cannot sup- 
ply the place of authority, nor gratitude that of submission. 
"We admit that the easiest, and where the doctrine of sub- 
ordination is not questioned, the best way to gain a com- 
pliance with our wishes is, to allure to it by kind treatment 
and agreeable manners ; but we deny that such compliance is 
any test of the spirit of obedience. True obedience is a hearty 
response to acknowledged authority. It does not voluntarily 
comply with a request, but implicitly yields to a command. 
When the mandate has gone forth, obedience does not obtain, 



129 

till the will of the subject is merged completely in the will of 
the ruler. Sympathy may render obedience a pleasant act, 
and indeed may alone produce a prompt compliance, when 
simple authority would be powerless. Care should be taken 
not to confound generosity with justice, voluntary consent 
with unconditional surrender. External actions which are 
alike, often spring from motives which are widely different, 
and even opposite. Obedience recognises the existence of 
abstract authority ; and all authority originates in the highest 
source. St. Paul writes to the Romans, " Let every soul be 
subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of 
God ; the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever 
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." 
It is here plainly shown to be the bounden duty of all, to 
recognise and obey rightful authority wherever it exists in the 
great chain, from the highest to the lowest; and distinctly as 
authority ; not waiting for the dictates of inclination or feeling; 
not demanding to know the reason of the command, as a 
necessary condition of obedience ; but simply asking if it be 
really the voice of rightful authority that speaks. On the 
other hand, this duty on the part of the subject, clearly implies 
an equal obligation on everyone in whom authority is vested, 
firmly to maintain it, to insist upon obedience, and to accept 
no substitute, unless he feels an honest necessity for doing so. 
The ruler is to demand submission, not to himself, from a 
feeling of personal superiority, but to the station he fills, from 
a respect in his own mind for the abstract relation of order 
and authority. His own right he may waive, " not rendering 
evil for evil, but contrariwise blessing." But the authority 
vested in the relation he sustains, he may not thoughtlessly 
yield up ; it is not at his disposal. He governs not for his 
own sake, but to teach obedience to others. The governed, 
on his part, is not, from sympathy, and affection, and har- 
mony of opinion, to obey the individual, but the authority 
residing in him rather, from a sense of obligation. These dis- 
tinctions are especially important, in dealing with children ; 
17 



130 

because they are apt to be led by caprice. Moreover, since 
dependence is the distinguishing feature of childhood, the 
kindred doctrine of unconditional subordination is more easily 
taught, the earlier it is attempted. Probably few persons, who 
have not noticed children expressly for the purpose, have dis- 
covered what a modifying influence it has upon a child of 
strong will, to establish in his mind the necessity of yielding 
to the will of another. It is common to sneer at this idea of 
subjugation, and to call it " breaking the will," and destroying 
the free spirit; and we often hear the proud boast, "you 
may coax, but you cannot" drive me." This means, I am 
weak enough to be wheedled by your arts, but have not the 
strength of purpose to subject my will to your authority ; in 
other words, I acknowledge that my principle is the victim of 
my feeling ; that it is safer to appeal to my caprice, than to 
my good sense. We cannot do better than to quote here 
from an eloquent writer* of the highest authority. 

" The first step which a teacher must take, I do not mean 
in his course of moral education, but before he is prepared to 
enter that course, is to obtain the entire, unqualified submis- 
sion of his school to his authority. We often err when de- 
signing to exert a moral influence, by substituting throughout 
our whole system persuasion for power ; but we soon find 
that the gentle winning influence of moral suasion, however 
beautiful in theory, will often fall powerless upon the heart, 
and we then must have authority, to fall back upon, or all is 
lost. I have known parents, whose principle it was, not to 
require any thing of the child, excepting what the child could 
understand and feel to be right. The mother in such a case, 
forgets that a heart in temptation is proof against all argu- 
ment ; and I have literally known a case where the simple 
question of going to bed, required a parental pleading of an 
hour, in which the mother's stores of rhetoric and logic were 
exhausted in vain. Teachers sometimes too, resolve that 

* Rev. Jacob Abbott. Lecture on Moral Education, before the American 
Institute, in 1831. 



131 

they will resort to no arbitrary measures. They will explain 
the nature of duty, and the happiness of its performance, and 
lead their pupils to love what is right without bringing in the 
authority of arbitrary command. But the plan fails. How- 
ever men may differ in their theories of human nature, it is 
pretty generally agreed by those who have tried the experi- 
ment, that neither school nor family can be preserved in order 
by eloquence and argument alone. There must be authority. 
The pupils may not often feel it. But they must know that 
it is always at hand, and the pupils must be taught to submit 
to it as to simple authority. The subjection of the governed 
to the will of one man, in such a way that the expression of 
his will must be the final decision of every question, is the 
only government that will answer in school or in family. A 
government not of persuasion, not of reasons assigned, not 
of the will of the majority, but of the will of the one who pre- 
sides." 

Authority, then, is clearly the starting-point in all government; 
the corner-stone of all order. Remove it, and the reign of 
anarchy and chaos instantly succeeds. 

"Let earth unbalanced from her orbit fly, 
Planets and suns run lawless through the sky ; 
Let ruling angels from their spheres be hurl'd, 
Being on being wreck'd, and world on world, 
Heaven's whole foundations to their centre nod, 
And nature trembles to the throne of God." 

Let us beware, then, how we worship more advanced and 
refined elements, to the exclusion of those, which, though 
lower and of earlier development, are equally general and 
primarily more important, inasmuch as they are the first to be 
recognised. The doctrine of allegiance and subjection to that 
which is above us, is the central essence of all real order. 
We may unconsciously deny it, and practically oppose its 
claims, and it is the dictate of human pride and weakness to 
do so ; but before we can really and understandingly, and in 



132 

full view of all our relations and destinies, renounce the doc- 
trine of unconditional submission to that which we feel to be 
rightful authority, we must declare an individual indepen- 
dence, and take for our motto, 

" Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." 

It being conceded, however, that authority must not be 
denied, a beautiful plan is contrived for escaping its exercise, 
by adroitly evading all occasions for its use. Always tell 
children to do what they like to do, and you will not need 
authority. In this way, at least, it may become obsolete. 
The secretary remarks, 

" Take a group of little children to a toy-shop, and witness their 
out-bursting eagerness and delight. They need no stimulus of badges 
or prizes to arrest or sustain their attention ; they need no quickening 
of their faculties by rod or ferule. To the exclusion of food and 
sleep, they will push their inquiries, until shape, color, quality, use, 
substance both external and internal, of the objects, are exhausted ; 
and each child will want the show-man wholly to himself." — 
Seventh Annual Report, p. 136. 

This may be quite pretty while the novelty lasts. But how 
can each child have the show-man wholly to himself? Indeed, 
it would not be strange, considering the peculiarities of chil- 
dren, even those of a large growth, if each one should want 
the prettiest toy to himself. We should pity the hapless wight, 
whose office it might be to decide the momentous question of 
preference between them, especially if they had never learned 
any thing but how to be amused. However true it may be, 
that a thing ceases to amuse when it ceases to instruct, the 
reverse surely is not true, that there can be no instruction 
without amusement. Education should indeed aim to give 
us the art of making an amusement of our business ; but it 
should warn us against the fatal error of attempting to make 
a business of our amusements. Since its influences are 
artificial and reforming, it does not merely follow impulses 
and inclinations, but chiefly resists, and corrects, and trains. 
Though neccessarily relying upon nature, it is not to be 



133 

wholly passive, but to strengthen, and modify, and improve 
nature. Its legitimate sphere is, to help nature follow out the 
processes of art, to profit by past experience, and to train the 
mind to investigate principles and resolve things into their 
constituent elements. The school is to fit us for the world ; 
and life is more a season of discipline than of amusement. 
Discipline is the rule ; pleasure the exception. The present 
president of Geneva College* once observed, 

" Let it be remembered, that the most attractive is not 
always the most useful study. ' Nil sine magno vita labore 
dedit mortalibus.' It is in study, as in trade, — we get nothing 
for nothing. We must make sacrifices and efforts for valua- 
ble attainments. Use — laborious use, must give vigor to our 
intellects, if we would make ' men understanding.' ' "What 
young men require,' says an eloquent living philosopher,! 
'are books learned and profound, and even somewhat diffi- 
cult ; that they may be accustomed to encounter difficulties, 
and that thus they may serve their apprenticeship to labor and 
to life; but it is really a pity to distribute to them, in the 
most reduced and slightest form, a few ideas without any 
real substance, communicated in such a manner, that a boy of 
fifteen years of age may learn the little book by heart in a day, 
may be able to recite it from beginning to end, and thus be 
induced to believe that he is not ignorant of humanity and of 
the world. No, men of energetic minds are formed by ener- 
getic studies.' But if pupils are put upon the study of some- 
what difficult books, another question arises of special im- 
portance to the teacher, how he may awaken their interest and 
excite them to the requisite exertion ; — and this question ap- 
pears to me more important than any one, which belongs to 
the mere technical part of instruction. An excited mind dis- 
dains difficulties, and in overcoming them acquires new 

* Benjamin Hale, D. D. Lecture on Natural Philosophy, before the 
American Institute of Instruction, in 1833. 

f Cousin. Linb erg's translation, p. 357. 



134 

power and confidence ; and the teacher accomplishes more 
for the benefit of his pupil, if he excites him to surmount an 
obstacle by his own efforts, than if he makes him an inclined 
plane and a rail-road, and lands him so gently on the other 
side, lhat he knows not where it was." 

It may strike some as singular, and yet it is perfectly philo- 
sophical, that while truth, though containing many seeming 
paradoxes, has no real ones, error, on the contrary, though 
appearing to have none, does in reality contain many. For 
instance, those who have the most faith in education and ex- 
pect from it the most wonderful results, forget, in iheir self- 
gratulation on what has been achieved, how gradual and toil- 
some has been the process of its achievement; and flatter 
themselves that they may bring others to the same high attain- 
ments, without so much expense of labor and discipline. 
They therefore attempt to leave out of education, that very- 
artificial training which constitutes essentially the whole of it; 
and at the moment when they claim to be independent of 
nature, come back to follow almost entirely her mere inclina- 
tions ; to lean upon the experience of others, to notice merely 
the superficial relations of things, and to trust for knowledge to 
the easy process of cursory observation. Now this propensity 
to observe without analysis, nature provides for without any 
artificial aid. Indeed, it predominates in children and savages ; 
while in its most external form, which is mere physical vision, 
it possesses in some beasts and birds of prey a keenness and 
quickness which seem almost magical. The deception may 
be explained, perhaps, upon the principle, that as the forms 
of knowledge and thought become abundant and widely 
diffused, they are mistaken for the reality ; and imitative 
rehearsal of words is taken as evidence that the ideas they 
are intended to represent are fully comprehended. It is for- 
gotten, that to skim the surface adroitly shows an incapacity 
and disrelish for looking far beneath it. That the paradoxes 
of truth are apparent, and those of error real, should establish 



135 

in our minds the consoling conviction, that while truth is im- 
mortal, error contains the seeds of its own dissolution. 

It being admitted, then, not only that authority must be 
recognised to exist, but also that there will be occasions 
for calling it into active use, we are brought at once to the 
evident necessity, in case of resistance or non-compliance, 
either of abandoning it, or providing ihe means of enforcing 
it by actual compulsion. In instances iherefore, where, either 
from the peculiar condition of the subject, or the degree of 
temptation, the spirit of opposition is too strong to be over- 
ruled by those higher and more refined motives upon which 
we should always rely when they are active, we are left with- 
out resource unless we appeal to fear. Now the lowest kind 
of fear has for its object physical pain. It is this that prompts 
us, in the earliest stages of our development, to the use of 
care to protect ourselves from harm. Deprive a child of the 
fear of receiving injury, and, if he were allowed freedom of 
action, his physical existence even, would be constantly en- 
dangered. We see then how indispensable is this sentiment, 
at that early age, to preserve one safe till the period arrives 
when he will be fitted for the exercise of those of later devel- 
opment, and which as life advances are to connect him with 
higher and wider relations. In seeking to promote the wel- 
fare of a whole, we must have reference to all its parts ; and if 
it is in its nature progressive, we must deal with each element 
at the proper time of its development, and to such a degree as 
the case demands. We must begin at the foundation and 
work step by step along, keeping as far as possible the end in 
view, but always adapting our means to present conditions. 
The loftiest and most beautiful edifice owes its firm and 
steady position to much deep and toilsome digging into the 
unsightly earth. In the construction of character too, we may 
come in contact with much that is irksome and vexatious ; 
yet we must not pass from it slightly ; it forms the basis of 
our future structure. Now, as iu the former case the founda- 
tion-stones are more securely, as well as more easily laid, 



136 

while the weight of the superstructure is not pressing upon 
them, so in the latter, the first principles, among which, if not 
beneath all, is that of subordination to authority, are more 
easily established, while those that are afterwards to constitute 
the more visible adornments, exert but little active force ; here 
too, future beauty and usefulness depend upon a sure and 
good foundation. The fear of doing wrong is compatible 
with, if not inseparable from, the most dauntless courage to 
do right. Since, then, fear is most predominant in childhood, 
being the natural concomitant of weakness and dependence, 
we should take advantage of it, and make it subservient to 
good ends. 

But if we admit the use of fear to secure obedience, we 
must consequently admit the use of punishment ; for nothing 
can exist in an active state without an object upon which to act. 
Thus, there can be no fear of that, in the existence of which 
there is no belief. Here, then, we arrive conclusively at the 
decision of the great question at issue ; namely, that the doc- 
trine of the use of physical punishment has its foundation in 
nature and necessity. 

Before proceeding any further, we wish, in order not to be 
misunderstood, to restrict the word punishment to its proper 
signification ; namely, the legitimate infliction of a penalty for 
wrong-doing, with a view to promote the good, either of the 
individual upon whom it is inflicted, or the general good of 
the community of which he forms a part, and to whose wel- 
fare as a whole, his own must be, in some sense, subservient. 
All capricious and vindictive acts of violence, therefore, under 
the name of punishment, we set aside as foreign to our sub- 
ject ; inasmuch as they constitute the abuse, rather than the 
use, of what we defend. 

We anticipate the most difficulty, in showing the connection 
that necessarily subsists between the physical and the moral ; a 
connection which must be admitted, since we have both a physi- 
cal and moral nature. So far as we have become acquainted 
with the objections of those who deny, in all cases, the good 



137 

effects of the rod, and of course the moral right to use it, even 
in the family, (for there are a few such,) we have found them 
to contain one or both of these two general ideas ; namely, first, 
that mutual love is the only governing law of our nature, and 
therefore alone sufficient to sway any individual who has not 
been impregnated with evil from without ; and second, that 
whether our nature be originally simple, or composed of two 
opposite moral elements, physical compulsion not only is not 
immediately productive of moral obedience, but has no ten- 
dency directly or indirectly to lead to it; in other words, that 
means in ihemselves physical cannot produce moral results. 
We will say no more of the palpable absurdity of denying a 
connection that we cannot comprehend, than to ask, if all 
mutual influences, both intellectual and moral, are not exerted 
by the mediate agency of some physical sense ? Of what use 
are speaking and writing and acting, if moral and intellectual 
impulses can as well be made without their intermediate use? 
We may as well abjure our physical nature at once and deny 
that we are in the body. But the most singular paradox, in 
regard to these Utopian theorists, is that they seem uncon- 
sciously to worship what ihey most abjure. While they 
profess to elevate themselves above the region of physical in- 
fluences, and to scorn their control, it is this very physical 
organization that they appear most anxious to protect from 
outrage. They seem willing to forego that sound moral and 
intellectual training, which they so fully appreciate and so 
truly prize, rather than to receive it, through the degradation 
of that lower nature which they affect to despise. They for- 
get that the susceptibilities of a lower nature are properly 
subservient to the noble purpose of developing and perfecting 
a higher ; the integrity of the soul is to be maintained at the 
expense of the suffering of the body. In thus denying the 
existence and use of any thing base in ourselves, we are left 
at last, in our efforts to maintain the purity of the whole, to 
identify our dignity with the most external part of our nature. 
We have here another instance of the self-destroying tendency 
18 



138 

of error. We see how extremes meet ; and that they who 
seek to rise upon false principles, are sure to fall. 

Punishment is of various kinds. It may be a look only ; 
it may be a word more or less severe ; or it may be a priva- 
tion ; or a task ; or a restraint upon personal liberty ; or a pecu- 
niary forfeiture ; or a blow. Whatever it be, it must be disa- 
greeable to the receiver, in order to constitute it punishment. 
Being not persuasive, but compulsory and retributive, it is at 
first regarded and treated as an enemy ; it thus finds the 
whole nature in a state of rebellion, and inclined to resist ; 
consequently the infliction of the penalty is immediately fol- 
lowed by the vexation and chagrin arising from offended 
pride ; the necessity of yielding ; the mortification of being- 
conquered. Thus far nothing has been done but to develop 
and bring to light latent evil, and reveal it more clearly to ihe 
consciousness of its possessor ; but the final good is not yet 
attained. At length the unpleasant scene is past ; the pain 
subsides; the blinding influence of passion ceases ; the quick 
instinct of self-defence settles into quiet calmness ; and after a 
hasty attempt at self-justification, succeed reflection, deliberate 
thought, unwonted self-examination, and finally, if all is right, 
conviction of wrong-doing, sincere humiliation, repentance ; 
which is the true moral fruit. " No chastening for the present 
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous ; nevertheless, afterward it 
yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which 
are exercised thereby." We see here the true moral of the 
scourge. We see here how one person, duly responsible 
for using means to advance the welfare of another beneath 
him, inflicts physical evil to produce moral good ; the 
act is evil in relation to the physical nature merely, but 
good in relation to the moral. Now since by the law of 
precedence, the former is verged in the latter, the violence of 
the act is only apparent ; it is really a moral act, as it springs 
from a moral motive in the doer, and aims at a moral result 
in the subject. It is too common to speak of corporal punish- 
ment as violence and outrage. But it is as much an abuse of 



139 

language, as it would be to call it an act of outrage to rouse an 
invalid from a refreshing sleep, in order to save him from 
being consumed by the flames. A contest between two for 
mastery, where neither has the right to rule, is an exercise of 
brute force, and may properly be called violence and outrage. 
But the true use of the rod, so far from being similar to this, 
is its direct opposite. It aims to prevent violence, by teaching 
the necessity of subjection. Physical coercion is but the final 
appliance of moral suasion ; a means of arousing the atten- 
tion to those expostulations which should always precede? 
accompany, or follow it, and of thereby saving them from being 
disregarded. 

Indeed, all government must end, if need be, in a resort to 
physical force. This idea is so beautifully and strongly illus- 
trated by a writer already quoted, that we cannot refrain from 
borrowing his thoughts again. Mr. Abbott says, 

" The government of the United States employs its hun- 
dreds of workmen at Springfield and at Harper's Ferry in the 
manufacture of muskets. The inspector examines every one 
as it is finished, with great care. He adjusts the flint — and 
tries it again and again until its emitted shower of sparks is of 
proper brilliancy, — and when satisfied that all is right, he 
packs it away with its thousand companions, to sleep proba- 
bly in their boxes in quiet obscurity forever. A hundred 
thousand of these deadly instruments form a volcano of 
slumbering power, which never has been awakened, and 
which we hope never will. The government never makes 
use of them. One of its agents, a custom-house officer, waits 
upon you for the payment of a bond. He brings no musket. 
He keeps no troops. He comes with the gentleness and 
civility of a social visit. But you know, that if compliance 
with the just demands of your government is refused, and the 
resistance is sustained, force after force would be brought to 
bear upon you, until the whole hundred thousand muskets 
should speak with their united and tremendous energy. The 
government of these United States is thus a mighty engine, 



140 

working with immense momentum, but the parts which bear 
upon the citizens conceal their power by the elegance of the 
workmanship, and by the slowness and apparent gentleness 
of their motion. If you yield to it, it glides smoothly and 
pleasantly by. If you resist it, it crushes you to atoms. Such 
ought to be the character of all government." 

The responsibilities then, of parents, and guardians, and 
teachers, with such powers in their hands, are momentous. 
We here clothe the teacher with parental authority, not only 
because he stands in loco parentis by consent of law and 
common opinion, but because we know not how else to regard 
him. We admit that the teacher's authority is naturally de- 
rived from the parent. But to refer all the petty punishments 
of little children to the parents, besides being impracticable, 
would imply want of confidence in the teacher, and weaken 
the tie that binds him to the pupil. Moreover, without reliev- 
ing the. teacher, it would impose upon the parent a task that 
does not belong to him ; and needlessly tempt the child to 
misrepresent his case. There is much sound philosophy in 
the old-fashioned threat, " If I know of your being whipped 
at school, I '11 whip you again when you get home." This 
firm support of the teacher has a far better effect upon the 
child, than the opposite course of listening to complaints and 
nurturing in his mind disaffection and distrust. It begets 
parental interest in the teacher, and filial affection in the pupil. 
Teachers ought to be worthy of such support and confidence. 
Indeed, worthy or unworthy, we cannot help trusting them, if 
we commit our children to their care. They will make their 
own " mark upon them," if they make any, guard their influ- 
ences as we may. Children will, at least so far as their own 
susceptibilities favor it, and to some extent despite of them, 
imbibe the real sentiments of their teachers. For, though like 
men and women they are immediately influenced and con- 
trolled by superficial manner, they have much discrimination 
of motive. How important, then, that both parents and teach- 
ers should be faithful and true, not only as regards instruction, 



141 

but discipline ; faithful to counsel, and reprove, and punish 
even. If a child is beset with temptation that is likely to 
prove too strong for him, how cruel, from indolence, or fear 
of offending, or a perverse and doting fondness for some 
mild theory, to abandon him as its victim ; when a little reso- 
lute exercise of authority would restore his mind to its bal- 
ance, and strengthen his power of self-conlrol. Is our ward 
hungry, let us feed him ; is he disconsolate and depressed, let 
us comfort and encourage him ; is he struggling with the 
raging violence, or the sullen obstinacy, or the cool determina- 
tion of an indomitable will, let us help him all in our power 
to resist and control it. As the rightful depository of authority 
in such a case, we are false to our trust if we do not fulfil the 
relation we sustain between God and our charge, and use all 
reasonable means in our power to inculcate the most impor- 
tant lesson of life. Remember the judgments that came upon 
Eli, " because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrain- 
ed them not." 

In conclusion, we cannot but believe that the Hon. Secre- 
tary himself, in his zeal for a theory, is unconscious what 
thrusts he has made at the whole body of professional teach- 
ers ; for many of his strictures are general. We do not object 
to a proper and dignified course of criticism, or even censure. 
If teachers need discipline, let them have it ; if rightly received 
it will, according to our theory, do them good. Only let it 
proceed from a good motive, be properly applied, and have a 
worthy object. If abuses exist, let those who commit them 
answer for it. Let reform be attempted by representing things 
in their true light, without overstating them. Loose declama- 
tion and wanton ridicule have a tendency to retard rather than 
to help forward reform. Distorted pictures, abounding in 
exaggerated coloring, may indeed produce a striking effect 
upon the cursory observer, but they tend to mislead the mind 
and corrupt the taste. While teachers hold their office let 
them be treated with the respect that is due to the station. 
The tendency of undermining their authority is well set forth 



142 

in the following extract from the report of the school commit- 
tee of Westborough, 1838-9. 

" It is a loose, or rather a false notion, respecting the authority with 
which the law of common sense, as well as the statute, invests the 
teacher, viz., an impression that he has no right to enforce obedience, 
— which, more often than any thing else, occasions the necessity of 
any violent or physical measures, to secure obedience. When the 
pupil, who has violated the wholesome regulations imposed upon the 
school, is called to account for his disobedience, he sometimes feels 
aggrieved and disgraced ; his dignity is insulted by such an infringe- 
ment of his right of self-control ; and he immediately assumes the 
altitude of defence, and resistance of authority. He stands upon his 
rights, and claims the privilege of doing as he pleases in school. He 
comes to school to learn, not to he governed. Now if such a spirit 
of anti-government receive the countenance of — if it be not frowned 
upon by — the parent or guardian, the authority of the teacher is 
nullified, and disorder and confusion are introduced into the school. 
And if the teacher still asserts his authority, and because his school 
is but one body, claims that it shall be no monster, and therefore 
shall have but one head, he maintains authority at the expense of the 
love of the governed, so essential to improvement, and is denominated 
a tyrant. 

" But let every child enter the school-room with the indelible im- 
pression from his parent, that the authority of the teacher is necessary, 
and right, and legal, and must and will be sustained ; let the parent 
require, on pain of his own displeasure, as if he had himself been 
disobeyed, that his child shall submit to all the regulations of the 
school, and that no infraction of them can be countenanced or palli- 
ated ; and this impression would forestall all necessity of that rigid, 
despotical authority, and those severe penalties, which, without it, are 
often indispensable. No teacher would maintain a despotism, but in 
peril of the greater evil of anarchy. But he is sometimes compelled 
to rule with a rod of iron, because his pupils have imbibed the 
notion that he has no right to rule at all. 

" If a teacher abuse the authority vested in him, there is always a 
remedy. But to make such abuse the occasion of infusing into the 
mind of the child the mania of anti-government, or the idea that he 
may resist any authority which lie may deem exorbitant, instead of 
remedying, aggravates the evil. Instead of removing abuse, it de- 
stroys all wholesome government." — Common School Journal, Vol. 
11. pp. 15, 16. 

We respond heartily to such sentiments as these. There is 
no surer way to diminish the amount of punishment in 
schools, than to give countenance and support to the teacher. 
But we tremble for the effect of those misguided notions 



143 

which make corporal punishment synonymous with brutality ; 
the prevalence of which has sometimes been evinced in news- 
paper paragraphs, and placards, and petitions for restraint upon 
the use of the rod. We cannot bat hope, however, that such 
scenes as have been enacted in Philadelphia will warn the 
public against the dreadful tendency of resisting legal force. 
When we once violate a principle it is impossible to know 
where the consequences may end.* Philadelphia, the city of 
Brotherly Love ! how sadly has she illustrated the danger of 
elevating sympathy above justice. We forsake authority be- 
cause we dislike its sterner aspect, and side, perhaps uncon- 
sciously, with anarchy. Rather than arm the law with execu- 
tive terrors to resist and subdue the guilty, we leave to the 
cruel mercy of lawless violence the lives and property of the 
innocent. Thus, shrinking from necessary evils, we plunge 
into greater and worse ones which might have been shunned. 
Says Mr. Mann, 

" — the pensioned advocates of despotism stand, with listening ear, 
to catch the first sound of lawless violence that is wafted from our 
shores, to note the first breach of faith or act of perfidy amongst us, 
and to convert them into arguments against liberty and the rights of 
man. There is not a shout sent up by an insane mob, on this side of 
the Atlantic, but it is echoed by a thousand presses and by ten thou- 
sand tongues, along every mountain and valley on the other." — 
Seventh Annual Report, pp. 197, 198. 

* "A most unpleasant circumstance in the late riots at Philadelphia, was 
the presence of a great number of large boys, who seem to have been 
among the most active of the rioters. This would doubtless be the case, 
to a considerable extent, anywhere, but it seems to have been particularly 
so in Philadelphia. A curious inquiry might be made, as to how far this 
unpleasant circumstance was caused by the mode of discipline adopted in 
the public schools of that city, which, if we are rightly informed, is pecu- 
liar. We understand that no punishment is allowed in the public schools, 
but that the scholars who deserve it are dismissed, and thus thrown idle 
into the streets, unless sent by their parents to private schools. This 
places a mass of boys, of the most unpromising character, in the position 
of all others where they will be sure to grow worse, to develop their own 
bad propensities, and to corrupt their associates. (If we are misinformed 
as to the fact, some of our Philadelphia friends can correct us.")— Provi- 
dence Journal of July 25. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

019 878 248 8 



144 



What responsibilities do these thoughts suggest. How 
careful should men of influence be to guard against encoura- 
ging that excessive love of freedom which can brook no re- 
straint. Those who know not how to be governed, are surely 
incapable of that self-government which is the very essence of 
freedom. If children are brought up with the notion that ihey 
are never to be restrained by force, they are in great danger of 
becoming the victims of lawless and ungovernable passions. 

We have to say, finally, that as we came forward reluctant- 
ly to the task of publicly expressing our dissent from some of 
the sentiments advanced, and plans of teaching proposed by 
the Hon. Secretary, in his Report, we take leave of the sub- 
ject with the satisfaction which springs from the conscious- 
ness of having discharged a duty which we owed alike to 
ourselves, to the public, and to him. Though it has cost us 
much time and labor, time that was due to relaxation from 
the severe toils of the school-room, and labor that we were ill 
able to bear, we shall be happy if what we have said may be 
humbly instrumental in advancing the important cause of 

SOUND POPULAR EDUCATION. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



I llllllllllllllllllllllflllllllll'UNN 

019 878 248 8 • 



Hollinger Corp. 
P H8.5 



